READIT-2007 - Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research
READIT-2007 - Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research
READIT-2007 - Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research
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Conference on<br />
Recent Advances in<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation Science & Technology<br />
(<strong>READIT</strong>-<strong>2007</strong>)<br />
July 12 & 13, <strong>2007</strong><br />
Organised by<br />
Madras Library Association<br />
Kalpakkam Chapter<br />
and<br />
Scientific and In<strong>for</strong>mation Resource Division<br />
<strong>Indira</strong> <strong>Gandhi</strong> <strong>Centre</strong> <strong>for</strong> <strong>Atomic</strong> <strong>Research</strong><br />
Kalpakkam 603 102, Tamil Nadu
Foreword<br />
The first decade of the current millennium belongs to knowledge and knowledge<br />
management. In<strong>for</strong>mation scientists and technologists are on the look out <strong>for</strong> the ways<br />
and means to implement the innovative tools and technologies <strong>for</strong> the betterment of the<br />
facilities to provide better services to the user community. In this context the do’s and<br />
don’ts and the right and wrongs is concern of almost all the library professionals.<br />
The present conference has “In<strong>for</strong>mation to Knowledge: Technology and Professionals”<br />
as the theme. We hope the proceedings brought out to do justice to the theme and have<br />
addressed at least some of the relevant topics in the field of interest to the professionals.<br />
Papers have been received in almost all fields covering various topics like knowledge<br />
environment and profession, library as knowledge centre, digital preservation issues,<br />
knowledge a commodity and so on. Also we tried to address many of the issues in the<br />
invited talks.<br />
Conference like this gives an opportunity <strong>for</strong> the interaction among the participants and<br />
better exchange of ideas and knowledge across a wider cross section. We hope we will<br />
be able achieve this aim during the conference and the participants will be able to make<br />
best use of the <strong>for</strong>um provided.<br />
The pace of change of the technology is so fast and it is a Herculean task to be abreast<br />
with technology and to make the best use of technology in the field of in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
science. It is more so <strong>for</strong> a library professional and <strong>for</strong> libraries as it demands the<br />
utilization of the technology on the one hand and the satisfaction of the user community<br />
on the other. This pace can be maintained and kept only if we are able to exchange ideas<br />
and come to know of the application and the implementation of the technology and tools<br />
in different context and at different places. We hope the proceedings will throw some<br />
light on the experience of the participant working in different fields.<br />
I hope the proceedings will serve as a reference document as well as a benchmark of the<br />
technology implementation in various libraries and provide an opportunity <strong>for</strong> us to adapt<br />
the knowledge base <strong>for</strong> better utilization.<br />
M. Somasekharan<br />
Convener- <strong>READIT</strong>-<strong>2007</strong>
CONTENTS<br />
INVITED TALKS<br />
“Bodhi” : The Institutional Knowledge Repository of IGCAR<br />
E.Soundararajan, C.Jayakumar and M.Somasekharan<br />
Knowledge a Commodity in the New Millenium<br />
A.Amudhavalli<br />
I-1<br />
I-7<br />
Technical Session-1: KNOWLEDGE ENVIRONMENT AND<br />
PROFESSIONALS<br />
Capacity Building in the Knowledge Environment: A Human Resource<br />
Development Approach<br />
Satish Kanamadi, Jayadev Kadli and Muttayya Koganuramath<br />
The role of library and in<strong>for</strong>mation professionals in the knowledge<br />
environment<br />
E.Soundararajan, C.Jayakumar and M.Somasekharan<br />
Opportunities <strong>for</strong> Librarians/In<strong>for</strong>mation Managers in managing explicit<br />
knowledge in the internet era<br />
D.Gayatri<br />
Knowledge Management In Digital In<strong>for</strong>mation System And The Role Of<br />
Library And In<strong>for</strong>mation <strong>Centre</strong>s With Special Reference To India<br />
Dr. Subarna Kr. Das<br />
Knowledge and In<strong>for</strong>mation Management in Libraries: A new challenge <strong>for</strong><br />
the library and in<strong>for</strong>mation professionals in the digital environment<br />
Dr.N.Subramanian<br />
Role of library and library professionals in present knowledge environment<br />
in the field of science and technology<br />
Y. S. Parihar and J. K. Pattnaik<br />
1<br />
9<br />
13<br />
22<br />
30<br />
37<br />
Session-2: LIBRARY AS KNOWLEDGE CENTRE<br />
University Libraries – Metamorphosis to Knowledge Resource Centers<br />
D.R.Samyuktha<br />
44
Industrial Safety In<strong>for</strong>mation: a Knowledge Management (KM) approach<br />
Nargund I N; and Joby Thomas<br />
Multimedia Data Mining in Digital Libraries: Standards and Features<br />
Sanjeevkumar. R. Jadhav<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation Resource Management in a knowledge society<br />
V. Rajendran and E. Soundararajan<br />
Using Knowledge mapping to support knowledge management in health<br />
organizations<br />
Sangita Gupta<br />
47<br />
54<br />
61<br />
68<br />
Session-3 : DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT PRESERVATION AND<br />
RESOURCE GENERATION<br />
Fire Detection System: A Device <strong>for</strong> document preservation in a Library<br />
Environment: Guidance <strong>for</strong> Selection to Installation of an Ideal System<br />
J.V.M.Joseph, M.Pandurangam and M.Somasekharan<br />
Document Management, Resource Generation & Preservation of Scientific<br />
Source Materials in Physics and Allied Fields: A Special Reference to SINP<br />
A.K. Saha, B.K. Mallick, D. Dasgupta & P. Das<br />
Digital Preservation Issues And Fallacies In Digital Era<br />
K.Vinitha, Dr.S.Kanthimathi,Dr. S.Sampath Kumar, & K.Tharani<br />
Approach Adopted By Npcil For Capturing And Preserving Knowledge<br />
J.P.Moolani , R.Mago, Umesh Chandra<br />
Digital Preservation and Online Access in “Meghnad Saha Archive”<br />
Dipa Dasgupta<br />
73<br />
81<br />
86<br />
93<br />
100<br />
Session-4: DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE AND TECHNOLOGY<br />
INTEGRATION<br />
Library 2.0: Myth or Reality ?<br />
E.Soundararajan and M.Somasekharan<br />
Role Of Electronic Surveillance And Security Systems In Academic<br />
Libraries<br />
L. Rajendran and G. Rathinasabapathy<br />
Internet Usage by <strong>Research</strong> Scholars and Faculty in Sciences: A study of M<br />
D University, Rohtak<br />
106<br />
111<br />
118
Dr. Sanjay K Kaushik and Vijendra Singh<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation Security: The role of DOI (Digital Object Identifier)<br />
Mrs N. Valarmathy<br />
Cyber Crimes and In<strong>for</strong>mation Frauds: Emerging Challenges For LIS<br />
Professionals<br />
Dr. G. Rathinasabapathy and L. Rajendran<br />
Digital Infrastructure And Technology Integration In State Agricultural<br />
University Libraries In South India: A Study<br />
G. Rathinasabapathy and A. Amudhavalli<br />
126<br />
131<br />
143<br />
Session-5: KNOWLEDGE A COMMODITY<br />
Knowledge Management in Academic Institute and Role of Knowledge<br />
Managers<br />
Sanjay Gupta, Vasundhra Kumari and Anukampa Negi<br />
Knowledge Communication in Academic and <strong>Research</strong> Environment<br />
Dr. D. S. Thakur<br />
IT enabled KM System/ Tools Development in Nuclear Power Corporation<br />
of India Limited (NPCIL)<br />
P.B. Mishra, J.P. Moolani, R. Mago and Umesh Chandra<br />
Nuclear Knowledge Management (NKM) at IGCAR:<br />
A case study on Fast Reactors<br />
A.Narayanan, J.Srinivasan, V.Rajendran and M.Somasekharan<br />
From Management Of Organizational Knowledge To Management Of<br />
Organizational Memory<br />
K.K.Kuriakose, H.Seetha, S.A.V.Satya Murty, S.Athinarayanan and<br />
P.Swaminathan<br />
Knowledge; A Marketable Commodity<br />
A. Chitra Dhavaputhalvi<br />
Role of Libraries in the Knowledge Commodity World<br />
K V Satyanarayana, Sheetal Tare<br />
152<br />
160<br />
169<br />
180<br />
190<br />
200<br />
204
‘Bodhi’ : The Institutional Knowledge Repository of<br />
IGCAR<br />
E.Soundararajan*, C.Jayakumar* and M.Somasekharan*<br />
Abstract<br />
Abstract: The collective acquired in<strong>for</strong>mation of an organization is called the ‘institutional<br />
knowledge’. The centralized Knowledge Repository uses standard taxonomies to consolidate<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation into one place allowing knowledge to be searched and retrieved with maximum efficiency<br />
and accuracy. Many organizations have realized the value of institutional knowledge and already<br />
initiated knowledge management systems that collect, store, redistribute, utilize and ultimately<br />
leverage the institutional knowledge <strong>for</strong> the benefit of the organization. All the organizations, in<br />
particular the R&D institutions like IGCAR need to build knowledge repository on its specific areas of<br />
interest. Once created, the IKR will act as a vehicle <strong>for</strong> knowledge dissemination, sharing and<br />
transfer. This paper gives a comprehensive view on building IKR at IGCAR.<br />
Keywords: Institutional Knowledge Repositor, Knowledge Management, Digital Library,<br />
Knowledge Organization<br />
1. THE KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZATIONS<br />
Today’s organizations must survive in the environment that is complex and<br />
highly competitive. The tremendous growth of in<strong>for</strong>mation and communication<br />
technologies has made the organizations to continuously strive to improve their<br />
per<strong>for</strong>mance and goals. After the in<strong>for</strong>mation explosion through Internet,<br />
organizations have become more conscious towards in<strong>for</strong>mation management and<br />
now they are evolving as knowledge organizations. A significant challenge facing the<br />
modern organizations is how to utilize the in<strong>for</strong>mation <strong>for</strong> overall improvement. A<br />
knowledge organization must necessarily become a learning organization so that the<br />
entire institution will learn during the daily routine and be able to adapt quickly to<br />
changing environment<br />
2. CHALLENGES OF KNOWLEDGE SHARING<br />
The challenging barrier <strong>for</strong> knowledge organization is that of creating a<br />
culture in which knowledge and knowledge sharing are valued and encouraged. R&D<br />
organizations generate knowledge mainly from within the organization. Another<br />
aspect is the tapping of tacit knowledge. The knowledge that resides in expert’s mind<br />
has to be recorded so that when an expert leaves the organization, his knowledge will<br />
be available <strong>for</strong> the benefit of organization. The issues to be addressed are<br />
• Appreciation of importance of knowledge captured<br />
• Knowledge loss while capturing<br />
• Mechanisms <strong>for</strong> transferring and trans<strong>for</strong>ming knowledge<br />
* Scientific In<strong>for</strong>mation Resource Division, <strong>Indira</strong> <strong>Gandhi</strong> <strong>Centre</strong> <strong>for</strong> <strong>Atomic</strong> <strong>Research</strong><br />
Kalpakkam, Tamilnadu –603 102, Email: sound@igcar.ernet.in<br />
I-1
Tacit Knowledge<br />
Contextual<br />
Mental Processes<br />
Difficult to Transfer<br />
Explicit<br />
Knowledge<br />
Tangible<br />
Systematic<br />
Ease of Transfer<br />
Fig 1: Types of Knowledge<br />
3. KNOWLEDGE RESOURCES AND ACQUISITION<br />
Tacit knowledge exists within the research people in either internal or external<br />
<strong>for</strong>m. Internal knowledge resides within the individuals and is based on personal<br />
experience and level of intelligence. External knowledge on the other hand resides<br />
outside and manifested in different plat<strong>for</strong>ms. Such a type of knowledge can be<br />
captured and codified into technical reports, images and can be archived as<br />
institutional knowledge repository.<br />
Knowledge acquisition identifies the knowledge resource and trans<strong>for</strong>ms it in<br />
to knowledge repository that can be used. It involves the following activities<br />
• Identify knowledge resources<br />
• Capturing identified knowledge<br />
• Organizing captured knowledge<br />
• Transferring the captured knowledge<br />
Use<br />
Share<br />
Organize<br />
Organizational<br />
Knowledge<br />
Collect<br />
Create<br />
Identify<br />
Fig 2. Organizational Knowledge Management Process<br />
There are several issues related to knowledge acquisition. It includes<br />
identifying the relevant knowledge, managing knowledge overload, knowledge loss<br />
while capturing, procedures and guidelines <strong>for</strong> organizing and transferring knowledge<br />
etc. The particular methodology and the level of desired knowledge depends on the<br />
organizational goals and its activities.<br />
I-2
4. WHY IKR?<br />
Organizations need to gather all the in<strong>for</strong>mation that they need to know <strong>for</strong><br />
their survival and then pool the captured in<strong>for</strong>mation at a common place as a<br />
repository. The type of in<strong>for</strong>mation include organization’s accumulated operational<br />
data, its manuals and procedures, research outputs, case studies, contingency<br />
management reports etc. These are essential in<strong>for</strong>mation that today's management<br />
needs frequently and the same has to be available <strong>for</strong> future use both in the near and<br />
far. Such an organizational in<strong>for</strong>mation repository becomes knowledge repository<br />
when it is analyzed, adapted and used effectively <strong>for</strong> the organizational end. The<br />
repository approach of organizing and consolidating in<strong>for</strong>mation makes it possible <strong>for</strong><br />
all of its potential users to access it easily, and also enables in<strong>for</strong>mation and<br />
knowledge sharing. The repository approach also makes it possible <strong>for</strong> management<br />
to organize and access in<strong>for</strong>mation by specific area of interest, and to make it<br />
available to employees more easily in any situation.<br />
5. TECHNOLOGIES OF IKR<br />
The in<strong>for</strong>mation technology acts as an enabler <strong>for</strong> knowledge management.<br />
There are several technologies and each has got a significant role to play in building<br />
institutional knowledge repository.<br />
5.1 Intranet, Internet<br />
Intranets and Internets offer new ways to manage and communicate data,<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge. Intranets have emerged as one of the most effective ways<br />
of sharing in<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge with in organizations.<br />
5.2 Groupware<br />
Groupware provides a means <strong>for</strong> increased collaboration and in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
transfer through e-mail, calendaring, contacts, project management and scheduling<br />
capabilities. It is essentially in<strong>for</strong>mation sharing. But with IKR, groupware will be<br />
used <strong>for</strong> knowledge transfer through services like ask an expert, consult etc. Some<br />
common groupware products are Microsoft’s Exchange server, Lotus Notes and<br />
GroupWise.<br />
5.3 Intelligent Agents<br />
The problem of in<strong>for</strong>mation overload is becoming acute <strong>for</strong> many<br />
professionals. Intelligent agents can be trained to roam networks to select and alert<br />
users of new relevant in<strong>for</strong>mation. Additionally they can be used to eliminate less<br />
relevant in<strong>for</strong>mation from in<strong>for</strong>mation feeds.<br />
5.4 Mapping Tools<br />
There are an increasing number of tools to develop cognitive maps or ‘shared<br />
mental models’. Companies to develop future scenarios and resolve conflicting<br />
situations have used these cognitive maps. Mapping tools can represent conceptual<br />
linkages between different knowledge resources.<br />
5.5 Document Management<br />
Documents, and especially structured documents, are the <strong>for</strong>m in which more<br />
explicit knowledge is shared. With proper annotations, indexing, highlighting etc, the<br />
I-3
documents can become knowledge repositories. Application of mapping tools and<br />
intelligent agents will help in linking documents <strong>for</strong> knowledge mapping.<br />
6. BUILDING KNOWLEDGE REPOSITORY AT IGCAR<br />
Knowledge management is the synergetic combination of data and<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation processing capacity of in<strong>for</strong>mation technologies and the innovative<br />
capacity of human beings. The knowledge recorded in procedures, databases, reports<br />
etc are explicit type of knowledge and can be processed by knowledge management<br />
tools. Explicit knowledge can be captured or generated, preserved and disseminated<br />
<strong>for</strong> knowledge sharing. The Scientific In<strong>for</strong>mation and Resource Division (SIRD) has<br />
initiated IGC knowledge resource management project named as “Bodhi”. This will<br />
be a centralized repository of knowledge documents of ICGAR, which will provide<br />
access to the following resources.<br />
6.1 IGC <strong>Research</strong> Contribution<br />
Fig 3: Home page of IGC Knowledge Resource<br />
The database of articles published by IGC scientists and engineers in various<br />
conferences and journals from year 1973 onwards. Articles are classified based on<br />
major subjects. Full text access is provided to all available articles. A suitable search<br />
interface is available to search publications based on various fields like author, title,<br />
keyword, abstract etc, Author index <strong>for</strong> every author gives his full set of publication<br />
that are available in this database. Year wise listings are provided with full text link<br />
that gives the summary of publication <strong>for</strong> each year.<br />
I-4
Fig 4: Year wise Publications Summary<br />
6.2 Image Archive<br />
A comprehensive database is being built to store the metadata of photographs<br />
belonging to various categories like milestones, VIP visits, important events, various<br />
facilities, historical events and experimental setups. All the photo negatives/photos of<br />
both color and black & white from the year 1973 onwards are being digitized and<br />
archived in Server system.The corresponding metadata in<strong>for</strong>mation is maintained in<br />
database system with required Meta fields such as description, keywords, year, unique<br />
id etc. The image archive can be searched based on any of fields <strong>for</strong> user convenience<br />
like description, date, event, unit etc. Digitized images are linked to their respective<br />
Meta in<strong>for</strong>mation.<br />
6.3 IGCAR News Clips Archive<br />
It is a repository of News clips pertaining to DAE and in particular to IGCAR<br />
activities from 1973 onwards. A bibliographic database is being created with required<br />
fields such as date, title, keywords etc. Individual news clips are being digitized and<br />
uploaded to servers and finally linked to their respective bibliographic entry. A search<br />
engine is being developed which can search news clips based on various fields such as<br />
date, year, tiles and source.<br />
6.4 Internal Reports<br />
Digitized versions <strong>for</strong> ICGAR Internal reports like IGC Reports, News Letters,<br />
Annual Reports, Brochures, Procedure documents and Manuals are made available<br />
and users can search on abstract level in<strong>for</strong>mation and access the digitized full text of<br />
the internal reports.<br />
7. FUTURE PLAN<br />
Organizing Digital Objects: The distributed digital objects can be organized<br />
based on their subject thesaurus and establish a semantic relationship between the<br />
I-5
objects to <strong>for</strong>m a conceptual network which will act as a semantic network or<br />
otherwise called as knowledge network.<br />
Ask an expert service: Users can get the answers <strong>for</strong> their questions from a<br />
subject expert through IKR. This provides a means <strong>for</strong> knowledge transfer and<br />
sharing<br />
8. CONCLUSION<br />
Knowledge management through institutional knowledge repository will<br />
create a learning organization in which knowledge will be shared and transferred<br />
among the employees in more effective manner. Appropriate in<strong>for</strong>mation technology<br />
tools can be utilized and employees could be motivated <strong>for</strong> sharing their respective<br />
subject knowledge.<br />
REFERENCES<br />
1. C.W. Holsapple (2003). Handbook On Knowledge Management. New Delhi:<br />
Springer.<br />
2. Malhotra, Yohes(2005). Integrating Knowledge Management technologies in<br />
organizational business processes: getting real time enterprises to deliver real<br />
business per<strong>for</strong>mance. Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol.9 no.1 pp.7-28.<br />
3. Dr David J. Skyrme(2005). Knowledge Management Solutions - The IT<br />
Contribution.<br />
http://www.skyrme.com<br />
4. Kiran jude fernandes, Vinesh Raja and Simon Austin(2005). Portals as a Knowledge<br />
repository and transfer tool- VIZCon case study. Technovation, Vol.25, Iss 11, pp<br />
1281-1289<br />
5. Gary Roberts(2005). Groupware as a Knowledge Repository. CIL Magazine. Vol. 25,<br />
Issue 4. pp 29-31<br />
6. Hamilton Mphidi and Retha Snyman(2004). The utilization of an intenet as a<br />
knowledge management tool in academic libraries. The Electronic Library, Vol. 22,<br />
iss 4. pp 393-400.<br />
I-6
Knowledge a Commodity in the New Millenium<br />
A.Amudhavalli ♣<br />
Abstract<br />
One of the first thinkers to posit the coming of the "In<strong>for</strong>mation Age" was the economist Fritz<br />
Machlup and his predictions generally included the proposition that in<strong>for</strong>mation was an important<br />
commodity, which would <strong>for</strong>m the basis of a new economic <strong>for</strong>ce. “In an economy where the only<br />
certainty is uncertainty, the one source of lasting competitive advantage is knowledge. When markets<br />
shift, technologies proliferate, and products become obsolete almost overnight, successful companies<br />
are those that consistently create new knowledge, disseminate it widely throughout the organization<br />
and quickly embody it in new technologies and products.” (2). Knowledge is mass-produced,<br />
packaged, distributed, exchanged and sold as discrete objects. Accurate, relevant and timely<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation is the key ingredient to effective decision-making. Any individual/institution’s long-term<br />
economic development is dependent on its ability to use in<strong>for</strong>mation to make decisions that enable<br />
growth, progress and productivity. There<strong>for</strong>e, researchers need to learn to critically consume<br />
knowledge products; and the in<strong>for</strong>mation professionals need to design and distribute knowledge<br />
products as re-usable objects with the aid of object-oriented design and standard knowledge<br />
distribution protocols.<br />
"New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. The more<br />
truth we have to work with, the richer we become." (1)<br />
1.INTRODUCTION<br />
That in<strong>for</strong>mation, knowledge and wisdom have financial value has been<br />
acknowledged <strong>for</strong> many years. If I may quote from the Christian Holy Bible: "Happy<br />
is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that getteth understanding For the<br />
merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver and the gain thereof than<br />
fine gold". This is extracted from the "Book of Proverbs", whose compilation started<br />
eight hundred years be<strong>for</strong>e the present era. In spite of this, the idea that in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
(as opposed to the in<strong>for</strong>mation carriers such as manuscripts and books) is something<br />
that should be paid <strong>for</strong> is not something that has been apparent to the general public,<br />
except in the cases of military and industrial espionage. One of the first thinkers to<br />
posit the coming of the "In<strong>for</strong>mation Age" was the economist Fritz Machlup and his<br />
predictions generally included the proposition that in<strong>for</strong>mation was an important<br />
commodity, which would <strong>for</strong>m the basis of a new economic <strong>for</strong>ce.<br />
For quite some time, there have been attempts to identify the in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
component of products and to cost out the value of these. Peter Drucker, the<br />
management guru, <strong>for</strong> instance has pointed out that in new industries in<strong>for</strong>mation, as<br />
opposed to parts and labour, is increasingly <strong>for</strong>ming inputs to products. The cost of an<br />
automobile, <strong>for</strong> example, is 40% material and 25% labour, whilst <strong>for</strong> a silicon chip the<br />
cost is 1% materials 10% labour and 70% in<strong>for</strong>mation. Even in the case of an<br />
automobile, the proportion of in<strong>for</strong>mation that is input to its manufacture is rising<br />
rapidly.<br />
Hence, we can say that we are living through another great swing point in<br />
history that has led to the emergence of an economy that is:<br />
♣ Professor & Head, Dept. of In<strong>for</strong>mation Science, University of Madras &<br />
President, Madras Library Association, Chennai.<br />
I-7
Global<br />
highly competitive<br />
fast changing<br />
based to a great extent on knowledge as the key asset<br />
“In an economy where the only certainty is uncertainty, the one source of<br />
lasting competitive advantage is knowledge. When markets shift, technologies<br />
proliferate, and products become obsolete almost overnight, successful companies are<br />
those that consistently create new knowledge, disseminate it widely throughout the<br />
organization and quickly embody it in new technologies and products.” (2)<br />
2. WHAT IS A COMMODITY?<br />
The "New Ox<strong>for</strong>d Dictionary of English" defines commodity as:<br />
"a raw material or primary agricultural product that can be bought or sold,<br />
such as copper or coffee a useful or valuable thing such as water or time".<br />
The "Concise Ox<strong>for</strong>d Dictionary" has:<br />
"an article or raw material that can be bought or sold, especially a product as<br />
opposed to a service. a useful thing".<br />
The "Chambers Dictionary" offers:<br />
"an article of trade; (in plural) goods, produce; profit, expediency, advantage,<br />
convenience or privilege (archaic)"<br />
I doubt that any of us here would argue against the idea that in<strong>for</strong>mation is a<br />
"useful thing". For the purposes of this paper, I intend to define a commodity as "an<br />
item that can be bought or sold". Under this definition, then the answer to the question<br />
posed in the title must be ‘yes - in<strong>for</strong>mation is a commodity’.<br />
3. CONCEPTUAL DEFINITION<br />
3.1. In<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
With the in<strong>for</strong>mation revolution, communicators need to clearly define<br />
knowledge, re-evaluate the Library & in<strong>for</strong>mation professionals’ role in the<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation transfer chain as both in<strong>for</strong>mation producers and consumers, and reexamine<br />
how and why we produce in<strong>for</strong>mation. In the last two decades, the rapid<br />
penetration of desktop publishing and Web technologies not only changed the design<br />
of in<strong>for</strong>mation but also introduced new power and challenges in its dissemination.<br />
The average user can design in<strong>for</strong>mation and distribute it via a Web site literally<br />
within minutes. This new power has led to an abundance of in<strong>for</strong>mation that some<br />
have called the "in<strong>for</strong>mation overload." In<strong>for</strong>mation has become a commodity<br />
because the tools and venues <strong>for</strong> creating and distributing in<strong>for</strong>mation are widely<br />
available. Consequently, I argue that the notion of in<strong>for</strong>mation as we know it is<br />
fundamentally meaningless. The "real value" of in<strong>for</strong>mation results when creators of<br />
I-8
in<strong>for</strong>mation can successfully market and brand their products. Hence, Knowledge is<br />
viewed more as a commodity in the new millennium.<br />
3.2. Knowledge<br />
Knowledge is a complex concept, yet the dominant view of knowledge in the<br />
management literature is a dichotomy between tacit and explicit. Even the knowledge<br />
management literature tends to view knowledge on a limited number of dimensions,<br />
whether this is in discussions of knowledge as a commodity or the process of<br />
knowing. A review of knowledge from first principles shows that knowledge has<br />
different degrees of validity, is highly heterogeneous and has complicated temporal<br />
and social aspects. A model of knowledge based on these aspects is presented.<br />
Comparing the four dimensions of knowledge with knowledge as a process opens up<br />
a more holistic view of knowledge management and helps articulate some of the key<br />
differences within streams of research in the field. This holistic perspective is also<br />
compatible with Polanyi's original complex conception of tacit knowledge, which<br />
drew heavily on Gestalt theory, a theory that examines the perception of "wholes".<br />
The dual perspectives of a multi-dimensional conception of knowledge as a<br />
commodity and a holistic perspective on knowledge management expands the<br />
avenues of potential research and improves our ability to put knowledge in action<br />
within organizations(3)<br />
4. KNOWLEDGE AS A COMMODITY<br />
Knowledge is mass-produced, packaged, distributed, exchanged and sold as<br />
discrete objects. Accurate, relevant and timely in<strong>for</strong>mation is the key ingredient to<br />
effective decision-making. Any individual/institution’s long-term economic<br />
development is dependent on its ability to use in<strong>for</strong>mation to make decisions that<br />
enable growth, progress and productivity. There<strong>for</strong>e, researchers need to learn to<br />
critically consume knowledge products; and the in<strong>for</strong>mation professionals need to<br />
design and distribute knowledge products as re-usable objects with the aid of objectoriented<br />
design and standard knowledge distribution protocols.<br />
Lyotard (1979), in his classic "Report on Knowledge", already observed that:<br />
"The relationships of the suppliers and users of knowledge to the knowledge they<br />
supply and use is now tending, and will increasingly tend, to assume the <strong>for</strong>m already<br />
taken by the relationship of commodity producers and consumers to the commodities<br />
they produce and consume. Knowledge is and will be produced in order to be sold"<br />
(4). The world Lyotard was beginning to see taking shape in the late 1970s is now<br />
with us. Like it or not, we now live in an era where data, in<strong>for</strong>mation, knowledge (and<br />
possibly even wisdom) have become commodified, i.e. packaged and sold (or traded,<br />
or given away) as discrete, easily-manipulated units - like rows of canned goods on a<br />
supermarket shelf.<br />
To operate in a world of commodified knowledge communicators need three<br />
types of skills. First, we need to become adept at using packaged knowledge goods.<br />
This entails knowing when and how to simply make use of the knowledge being<br />
purveyed, just as we already routinely consume convenience foods or instantly "plugand-play"<br />
electronic equipment, and when and how to critically engage with the<br />
implicit message communicated by the packaging in which the knowledge arrives,<br />
just as we already routinely do with other types of consumer product such as mobile<br />
phones or toothpaste tubes (5). There was a time when academically useful<br />
I-9
knowledge would always be packaged in one of a very small range of carefully<br />
graded packages (books, peer reviewed journal articles, and so <strong>for</strong>th) and when it was<br />
necessary to painstakingly work through the content of each package to extract value<br />
from it. Increasingly, however, the boundaries between academic and popular<br />
products are becoming blurred and it is now often no longer necessary to actually<br />
open the package - simply reading the label (e.g. the title or the abstract) is enough to<br />
see how it can be used.<br />
Second, we need to learn how to package our own knowledge products in<br />
ways that are easily consumable and that allow <strong>for</strong> their re-use in plug-and-play<br />
knowledge environments. In the world of computer programming it has become<br />
standard practice to design systems in a modular, object-oriented manner so that<br />
programming code can be more easily maintained and re-used (6). In this approach,<br />
programs are not designed as single large systems, but are broken into many<br />
independent objects, each of which appears as a simple, replaceable building block to<br />
the system, however complex the object’s inner workings may be. In the same way, in<br />
the world of in<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge management, it has become increasingly<br />
common to "hide" each complex knowledge object behind a set of meta data<br />
(analogous to the label on a soup can), so that it can be easily slotted in or out as<br />
needed, without compromising the stability of the larger system. To build knowledge<br />
objects of this sort, researchers need to learn to think and work in terms of objectoriented<br />
design. What are the main classes of objects making up a knowledge product<br />
one is constructing? How can one ensure that each object is maximally modular so<br />
that it can be easily replaced? Which objects could be more efficiently produced by<br />
outsourcing them to someone else?<br />
Third, we need to become proficient at using the many standard knowledge<br />
packaging standards and protocols already in use in the knowledge economy. These<br />
range from simple conventions which make it easier <strong>for</strong> humans to select and<br />
consume knowledge products (titles, subtitles, executive summaries, highlighting of<br />
key points) to the many technical protocols (such as HTML, XML and RSS) that<br />
allow <strong>for</strong> the efficient exchange of in<strong>for</strong>mation among computer systems and<br />
programs. While few social science researchers will want to know about the technical<br />
specifics of such protocols, understanding their purpose and being able to use them<br />
greatly enhances one’s ability to engage with knowledge networks. RSS (Really<br />
Simple Syndication), <strong>for</strong> example, is a widely used convention that makes it easy to<br />
automatically include appropriate aspects of others’ work in one’s own knowledge<br />
products, and, conversely, to make one’s own knowledge products freely available in<br />
such a way that others can easily, and automatically, include it in their work.<br />
5. CHALLENGES IN NEW MILLENNIUM<br />
The opportunities of technology are not without their risks. Technological<br />
advances have enabled a greater number of people to provide design, desktop<br />
publishing, Web design, and online content services. As these service providers<br />
proliferate, the value—if nothing else the economic value of in<strong>for</strong>mation is diluted<br />
and is commoditized. While the supply of in<strong>for</strong>mation has grown exponentially, it is<br />
difficult to measure the demand <strong>for</strong> it. By some measure, online content providers<br />
have not been able to generate revenue using a subscription service model. Others<br />
only manage to sustain their business by attracting traffic and advertisers to their Web<br />
site. This is at least an indication that consumers of in<strong>for</strong>mation are not yet willing to<br />
I-10
pay <strong>for</strong> the in<strong>for</strong>mation because free in<strong>for</strong>mation is readily available. While their<br />
quality is not guaranteed, valuable in<strong>for</strong>mation is there <strong>for</strong> the taking if consumers are<br />
willing to dig and filter out the in<strong>for</strong>mation noise. Practitioners need to re<strong>for</strong>mulate<br />
our identity and rebrand our work.<br />
The value of knowledge decays rapidly in a constantly changing global<br />
environment. There<strong>for</strong>e researchers need to learn how to remain up to date with<br />
current developments, to create and deploy knowledge quickly, to manage time<br />
effectively, and to practice the art of just-in-time learning. More than anything else,<br />
the modern era has been characterized by constantly accelerating change -<br />
technological change, political change, and social change - and there is no sign that<br />
things are about to slow down. Even though we are, as Toffler observed, literally sick<br />
of change, we are also addicted to it. In the new knowledge economy things (have to)<br />
happen quickly (7). Fresh perspectives, technological innovations, new products and<br />
services, are what drives the economy, and organisations and individuals who are<br />
unable to keep up, who lack the necessary ‘agility’ (8), are the ones who lose out.<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation is freely and abundantly available. There<strong>for</strong>e researchers also<br />
need to learn to dissemble useful in<strong>for</strong>mation, trans<strong>for</strong>m it into knowledge, and pass it<br />
along appropriately. There was a time when there was a shortage of goods and<br />
services in the global economy, but this is no longer the case - enough food is<br />
cultivated every year and enough manufacturing capacity exists to feed and provide<br />
basic com<strong>for</strong>ts <strong>for</strong> each of the 6 or so billion people on the planet . The fact that<br />
millions of people still go hungry is due to a failure of political imagination and will,<br />
not to any intrinsic scarcity. At the level of in<strong>for</strong>mation, we now even more clearly<br />
live in an era of ‘post-scarcity’ (9) economics. In<strong>for</strong>mation is available in everincreasing<br />
abundance and at ever-decreasing cost. Even though countries and regions<br />
within countries still share very unequally in the spoils of the in<strong>for</strong>mation era, with<br />
some claiming that the world is split in two by a ‘digital divide’ between rich and<br />
poor, in<strong>for</strong>mation technologies are spreading through the ‘developing’ world at an<br />
even faster rate than in the ‘developed’ world (10). This over-abundance of freely<br />
available in<strong>for</strong>mation has however, resulted in a new type of scarcity - that of<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation overload. We are now constantly confronted with simultaneously<br />
knowing too much (being overwhelmed by all the bits being piped into our<br />
consciousness) and too little (not being able to extract the important bits from the<br />
rest).<br />
5.1. Skills<br />
To thrive in such an environment and to function effectively, we need to learn<br />
and acquire six types of knowledge and skills. First, we need to learn how to filter out<br />
useless in<strong>for</strong>mation. Whereas in a previous era the challenge may have been to track<br />
down and secure in<strong>for</strong>mation as a scarce commodity, now we have to filter out noise<br />
in an ef<strong>for</strong>t to detect some kind of signal in the stream of junk data being beamed our<br />
way. At the simplest level this means learning how not to pay attention, how to look<br />
the other way, and how to make liberal use of e-mail programs’ delete buttons. More<br />
profoundly, it involves learning how to make use of filters to prevent unwanted<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation from ever reaching us. Effective human filters take the <strong>for</strong>m of favourite<br />
columnists, bloggers, academic authors, and so on whose take on events resonate with<br />
our own. However, in building a defensive wall of human filters between ourselves<br />
and the threat of in<strong>for</strong>mation overload, it is important that we do not completely<br />
screen out all possibility of being surprised, or of learning fundamentally new things.<br />
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If our human filters are all too much like ourselves in background, if they are all<br />
saying the same sorts of things, then it may be time to risk indulging in a little<br />
overload. In addition to human filters, we also need to learn how to use the<br />
increasingly large and effective array of automated filtering tools. Search engines<br />
such as Google now make it possible, as a matter of routine, to winnow out billions of<br />
pages of irrelevant in<strong>for</strong>mation in an instant and to home in on the one or two pages<br />
that matter. Similarly, by carefully slicing, dicing and auto-filtering syndicated news<br />
feeds, it is now possible to set up highly focussed streams of incoming news tailored<br />
to one’s particular requirements.<br />
Second, we ourselves need to learn how to act as filters <strong>for</strong> others. Whether it<br />
is in the context of a money-making business or simply "<strong>for</strong> the good of the cause",<br />
central to what knowledge workers do is to collect and filter in<strong>for</strong>mation and pass it<br />
on to others as knowledge. Often, simply sorting bits of disconnected in<strong>for</strong>mation into<br />
commonly accepted (or novel) classification schemes already adds sufficient value to<br />
count as a desirable knowledge product. In other cases, we need to process the<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation in more profound ways to make it into something that others will want to<br />
use in their own knowledge projects.<br />
Third, we need to keep up to date with new developments - tracking both<br />
broad political and technological trends and specific developments in particular fields<br />
of interest. This requires maintaining a constant watch on a variety of ‘popular’ and<br />
scholarly news sources - including academic journals, newsletters, weblogs and<br />
syndicated news feeds - and participating in networking events, such as conferences<br />
where in<strong>for</strong>mation about the latest advances (and the latest gossip) is exchanged.<br />
Fourth, we need to learn how to rapidly develop and deploy knowledge<br />
products be<strong>for</strong>e the window of opportunity within which they can be effective closes.<br />
While there will probably always be a market <strong>for</strong> painstaking empirical and<br />
theoretical work that unfolds over periods of many months and years, most often the<br />
type of knowledge that matters is that which can be brought to bear quickly. For<br />
example, the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek has in the last decade become one of<br />
the most influential and sought after cultural analysts in academia. In part he has<br />
achieved this status as a result of his closely argued and startlingly original academic<br />
writings ♣ , but in part it also results from the constant stream of almost instantaneous<br />
commentaries he provides (via magazines, newsletters, conference presentations,<br />
radio interviews and the like) on unfolding world events. To create and deploy<br />
knowledge quickly we need to learn the skills of rapid knowledge assembly, such as<br />
using ready-made components as building blocks <strong>for</strong> larger products, collaborating<br />
with others to make projects more manageable, and making use of techniques such as<br />
rapid prototyping (11) to speed development. We also need to learn to resist the<br />
temptation of ‘over engineering’ our products and to recognise when good enough is<br />
indeed good enough.<br />
Fifth, we have to become more skilled and strategic in managing time as the<br />
most valuable resource available to us. For some, this might mean careful project<br />
♣ Zizek, S. (1992). Enjoy Your Symptom! Jacques Lacan In Hollywood And Out.<br />
London: Routledge.<br />
Zizek, S. (2001). Did Somebody Say Totalitarianism? Five Essays in the (Mis)Use of<br />
a Notion. London: Verso.<br />
I-12
planning to ensure that deadlines will be met. For others, it might simply mean<br />
finding a suitable rhythm of, <strong>for</strong> example, focussed work interspersed with periods of<br />
rest and reflection.<br />
Lastly, we need to learn the skill of just-in-time learning. In a fluid, constantly<br />
changing environment it is the norm not to have the right knowledge and skills in<br />
one’s repertoire. What is needed then is the ability to recognise the gaps in what one<br />
knows and to become committed to being a ‘lifelong learner’ (12).<br />
6. CONCLUSION<br />
I have come to the sad conclusion that knowledge is a commodity that can be<br />
traded and can, in fact, be bought and sold to make profit. It is still, however, also<br />
provided <strong>for</strong> free even in established organisations. For instance, a beneficent<br />
management purchases in<strong>for</strong>mation from the providers and then makes that<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation available, free of charge, to its staff. I would say, in passing, that the<br />
dictum "Knowledge is Power" is only true, if that knowledge is shared and put to use,<br />
knowledge that is hoarded is useless. My main concern in closing this brief talk is to<br />
ask myself if there is any in<strong>for</strong>mation that should remain free of charge and to which<br />
there should be easy and ready access. To this, my answer is a very firm "Yes!” There<br />
has been much debate about electronic communication making worse the division<br />
between the In<strong>for</strong>mation Rich and the In<strong>for</strong>mation Poor and I have no doubt that this<br />
is very possible. At the very minimum, every person should be guaranteed, free of<br />
charge, all the in<strong>for</strong>mation that they need to make their everyday life decent, happy,<br />
efficient and as prosperous as they are able. This calls <strong>for</strong> both In<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
Professionals and Governments to bend every ef<strong>for</strong>t to identify what in<strong>for</strong>mation is<br />
needed to ensure this (and I would suggest that we still do not know definite answers<br />
to this) and to then make sure that this in<strong>for</strong>mation is provided. In connection with<br />
making charges <strong>for</strong> material that is currently <strong>for</strong> free, it is interesting to note a<br />
warning given by the senior vice president of Warner Brothers On-line to the<br />
Hollywood production industry: "Entertainment companies are mortgaging their online<br />
future. They're giving away their content in exchange <strong>for</strong> exposure. But the<br />
entertainment companies are basically underwriting these Internet companies by<br />
throwing away their intellectual currency". When it is realised how few Internet<br />
companies are really making money, as opposed to having their share prices pushed<br />
up, then one can expect that in the fairly near future there will be a change in policy<br />
on free in<strong>for</strong>mation.<br />
REFERENCES<br />
1. Buckland, M. (1991). In<strong>for</strong>mation as thing. Journal of the American Society <strong>for</strong><br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation Science, 42, 351-360.<br />
2. Capurro, R., & Hjøørland, B. (2003). The concept of in<strong>for</strong>mation. Annual Review of<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation Science and Technology, 37 (ARIST)(pp. 343-411). Washington, D.C.:<br />
American Society <strong>for</strong> In<strong>for</strong>mation Science and Technology.<br />
3. Casselman R M and Samson D. System Sciences, 2005. HICSS '05. Proceedings of<br />
the 38th Annual Hawaii International Conference on (2005), pp. 243b-243b.<br />
4. Bressler, S., & Grantham, C. (2000). Communities of Commerce. London: McGraw<br />
Hill.<br />
5. Bannister, P. (1994). Discourse Analysis. In Bannister, P., Burman, E., Parker, I.,<br />
Taylor, M. & Tindall, C. (Eds.), Qualitative Methods in Psychology:A <strong>Research</strong> Guide.<br />
London: Open University.<br />
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6. Booch, G. (1993). Object-Oriented Analysis and Design with Applications (2nd<br />
Edition). Addison-Wesley.<br />
7. Toffler, A. (1970). Future shock. New York: Random House.<br />
8. McCarthy, M.P., Stein, J., & Brownstein, R. (2002). Agile Business <strong>for</strong> Fragile<br />
Times : Strategies <strong>for</strong> Enhancing Competitive Resiliency and Stakeholder Trust.<br />
McGraw-Hill.<br />
9. Ash<strong>for</strong>d, R., & Shakespeare, R. (1999). Binary Economics: The New Paradigm.<br />
Lanham: University Press of America.<br />
10. Shirky, C. (2002). Half the world. Downloaded from<br />
http://shirky.com/writings/half_the_world.html 2, May <strong>2007</strong>.<br />
11 Jones, M. K., Li, Z., & Merrill, M. D. (1992). Rapid prototyping in automated<br />
instructional design. Educational Technology <strong>Research</strong> and Development, 40(4), 95-<br />
100.<br />
12. Edwards, R., & Nicoll, K. (2001). <strong>Research</strong>ing the rhetoric of lifelong learning.<br />
Journal of Education Policy, 16(2), 13-24.<br />
I-14
Capacity Building in the Knowledge Environment:<br />
A Human Resource Development Approach<br />
Satish Kanamadi * , Jaydev Kadli ** and Muttayya Koganuramath ∗<br />
Abstract<br />
The ICT has brought in a paradigm shift in the in<strong>for</strong>mation handling activities during the last<br />
few years. Because of the emergence of knowledge as the most crucial asset responsible <strong>for</strong> the<br />
economic and social developments of the present society, the present society has come to be known as<br />
knowledge society and the environment that contains the entire gamut of knowledge management<br />
processes has come to be known as knowledge environment. The librarianship has evolved and found<br />
itself new roles and responsibilities in this knowledge environment. This article discusses the<br />
knowledge management process in libraries and outlines the responsibilities that are expected of<br />
librarians to function as knowledge managers. The various avenues available <strong>for</strong> librarians to acquire<br />
these skills <strong>for</strong> their professional development are discussed. Finally, article also mentions how the LIS<br />
professionals should move away from thinking about their employment security and start thinking<br />
about employability.<br />
Keywords: Knowledge Management, Professional Development, ICT Competencies, Staff<br />
Training<br />
1. INTRODUCTION<br />
Through the ages, the society has passed through several ages. First it was<br />
agricultural society where agriculture was the dominant <strong>for</strong>ce <strong>for</strong> development. This<br />
was followed by industrial age as there was a sudden spurt in industrialization. Then<br />
came the revolution in in<strong>for</strong>mation technology which made the society to surge<br />
<strong>for</strong>ward and was called in as in<strong>for</strong>mation age. Today we live in a society which is<br />
known as knowledge society, because it is being driven by knowledge management<br />
processes. The role of libraries in providing widespread and inclusive access to<br />
knowledge is widely acknowledged. In today’s context, library has to play two<br />
distinct roles-to serve as a local centre of in<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge and to be a<br />
gateway to national and global knowledge (Pitroda, Sam 2006).<br />
2. KNOWLEDGE ENVIRONMENT<br />
As the society moved towards becoming Knowledge society, it also acquired a<br />
new terminology to define its presence. Knowledge Environment is nothing but the<br />
work environment where the whole gamut of activities like knowledge innovation,<br />
knowledge application , human resource management and finally use of ICT <strong>for</strong><br />
knowledge management takes place.<br />
Knowledge environment involves management of knowledge by effectively<br />
identifying, acquiring, developing, resolving, using, storing and sharing knowledge, to<br />
create an approach to trans<strong>for</strong>ming and sharing of tacit and explicit knowledge, and to<br />
raise the emergency and innovation capability by utilizing the wisdom of the team.<br />
The significance of knowledge environment has increased manifold due to the<br />
fact that knowledge has become the driving <strong>for</strong>ce <strong>for</strong> economic and social<br />
∗ Tata Institute of Social Sciences (Deemed University), Sion-Trombay Road, Deonar,<br />
MUMBAI- 400088, kanamadi@gmail.com, koganuramath@rediffmail.com<br />
**<br />
Lala Lajpat Rai College of Commerce and Economics, Mahalaxmi, MUMBAI – 400 034<br />
Email: jhkadli@gmail.com
development (Balyan, R.K. <strong>2007</strong>). This has provided boost <strong>for</strong> the importance of<br />
library. It has also raised an important question like how to manage knowledge in the<br />
libraries in the near future. Knowledge management in libraries should be focused on<br />
effective research and development of knowledge, creation of knowledge bases,<br />
exchange and sharing of knowledge between library staffs (including its users),<br />
training of library staff, speeding up explicit processing of the implicit knowledge and<br />
realizing of its sharing.<br />
3. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN LIBRARIES<br />
For many of us in the academic world, knowledge management is an old<br />
concept, a function historically per<strong>for</strong>med by librarians. However, in the digital<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation age this term has taken on new meanings. Knowledge management is the<br />
process of trans<strong>for</strong>ming in<strong>for</strong>mation and intellectual assets into enduring value. It<br />
connects people with the knowledge that they need to take action, when they need it.<br />
The key to knowledge management is capturing the knowledge of process - how<br />
organisations get their work done - and how various elements of in<strong>for</strong>mation connect<br />
to this.(Hawkins, Brian 2000) The literature defines two different types of in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
necessary to accomplish this: explicit and tacit. Explicit in<strong>for</strong>mation is packaged,<br />
easily codified, transferable, and communicable. Tacit knowledge, on the other hand,<br />
is personal, context-specific, difficult to <strong>for</strong>malize, and difficult to communicate and<br />
transfer.<br />
The core process of Knowledge Management in libraries includes the<br />
following:<br />
i) Knowledge Creation:<br />
Measures and instruments that promote the creation of knowledge in libraries<br />
are acquisition of external knowledge, setting up of interdisciplinary project teams <strong>for</strong><br />
specific tasks and their findings, etc.(Mertins, Kai et al, 2001) In this step,<br />
management plans are <strong>for</strong>mulated to coordinate all knowledge management related<br />
activities. Secondly, it requires establishment of special leading groups of knowledge<br />
flow <strong>for</strong> accomplishing all tasks relating to knowledge management activities.<br />
Electronic resources committees are established composed of various types of<br />
specialists to take charge of evaluating, procuring and creating the electronic<br />
resources on the one hand, and coordinating activities of business departments and<br />
spurring them on to close cooperation in such fields as procurement and organization<br />
of the electronic in<strong>for</strong>mation resources as well as providing services on the other<br />
hand.<br />
ii) Knowledge Storing:<br />
The stored knowledge in manuals, databases, case studies and even processes<br />
and rules of thumb makes up of <strong>for</strong> an important aspect of Knowledge management.<br />
By capturing and storing the skills and knowledge of an employee, the deterrence to<br />
the processes when he leaves the organization can be minimized because these<br />
processes can be carried on by any other person.<br />
2
iii) Knowledge Distribution/Dissemination:<br />
Provision of the right knowledge to the right person at the right time is core of<br />
knowledge management process. There<strong>for</strong>e, libraries will have to use diverse media<br />
and channels to disseminate new knowledge created. There are several methods and<br />
tools like Internet and intranet are available <strong>for</strong> dissemination. Other aspect of<br />
dissemination of knowledge is the transfer of experiences to new employees and<br />
others by training on-the-job, mentoring and other coaching techniques (Shanhong,<br />
Tang, 2000)<br />
The process of knowledge dissemination at libraries can be strengthened by<br />
• Continuous strengthening the creation of libraries' own document resources<br />
• Continuously raising the quality of libraries' staffs<br />
• Ensuring utilization of all IT applications such as Internet, Intranet and other<br />
KM tools like groupware, retrieval tools, data warehousing, etc.<br />
• Ensuring the security of KM operations<br />
iv) Knowledge Application:<br />
According the survey conducted by Martins (2001), the application of<br />
knowledge is the most essential task of knowledge management. Libraries are<br />
attaching importance to acquire knowledge and achieve maximum functions and<br />
efficiency of knowledge in<strong>for</strong>mation. This is needed <strong>for</strong> providing value added<br />
services to the people There<strong>for</strong>e, knowledge services based on high-speed in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
networks are of significance to the library users. These can be achieved by:<br />
• Setting up virtual libraries or in<strong>for</strong>mation centers <strong>for</strong> enterprises, governments,<br />
public organizations and scientific research institutions<br />
• Setting up ICT enabled knowledge services which is actually a 24X7 any<br />
where anytime access model <strong>for</strong> in<strong>for</strong>mation services<br />
• Digitizing all print resources into digital in<strong>for</strong>mation and its integration with<br />
the mainstream digital in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
v) Human Resource Development <strong>for</strong> KM<br />
To run a complex process like knowledge management, library staff needs to<br />
have high quality specialized talents. They need to imbibe certain skills like<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation management using ICT skills and use of certain knowledge management<br />
tools. (Jain, K.K. 2005) There has to be a complete paradigm shift from how things<br />
were managed to doing things in a completely different manner. In practice, there is a<br />
need to pay full attention to diversity and variation of library staffs' requirements in<br />
this knowledge environment (Bansal, Alka 2000).<br />
3
4. NEW FOUND ROLES / RESPONSIBILITIES OF LIS PROFESSIONALS<br />
Increasing applications of ICT and rapid developments happening in<br />
knowledge environment have put lot of pressure on LIS professionals to per<strong>for</strong>m and<br />
deliver results. At the same time, these developments have also created new<br />
challenges and opportunities <strong>for</strong> them. In this dynamic environment, LIS<br />
professionals are facing complex challenges to meet the ever-changing diverse<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation needs. They need to upgrade their skills <strong>for</strong> implementing new practices<br />
and technologies and <strong>for</strong> sustaining the demands of knowledge environment (Halkar<br />
G.G., 2005). As knowledge managers, LIS professionals need to be aware of the use<br />
and implementation of these changes and develop technological, managerial and<br />
communication skills. Only such attitude can help LIS professionals in realizing their<br />
full potential.<br />
The review of related literature, study of several books and journals in the<br />
related areas helped authors in identifying several significant skills needed by library<br />
professionals to succeed in this knowledge environment. They are discussed briefly<br />
below<br />
i) Librarianship Skills<br />
No matter how drastically the in<strong>for</strong>mation environment has changed the<br />
relevance of traditional librarianship is still felt. In the light of ICT, the LIS<br />
professionals must revisit and refresh their knowledge about traditional skills like<br />
Classification, Cataloguing, Reference Services, Indexing, Abstracting, User<br />
Education, Collection Development and Resource Sharing activities (Mestri, Mamata<br />
et al. 2006)<br />
ii) In<strong>for</strong>mation Communication Technology skills<br />
ICT has revolutionized the in<strong>for</strong>mation handling activities in library &<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation centre. It involves entire gamut of technology involved in in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
processing, consolidation, repacking, communication and retrieval. It is necessary that<br />
LIS professionals have a comprehensive understanding of Library automation,<br />
Networking, hardware and software involved. Though knowledge about Internet and<br />
its usefulness is a must, Knowledge about online databases, digital library softwares,<br />
search engines, portals, content management is very much essential. In a nutshell, LIS<br />
professionals will have to keep themselves up to date with any developments in ICT<br />
that has any implication <strong>for</strong> knowledge management process.<br />
There are various tools available <strong>for</strong> Knowledge management process. Some<br />
of the tools <strong>for</strong> knowledge Capture are PC Pack, Clementine Data mining, and<br />
Intelligent Miner. Similarly some of the tools used <strong>for</strong> knowledge sharing process are<br />
ART Enterprise, GrapeVINE, PKM (Personal Knowledge Manager), Knowledge<br />
Exchange, etc.(Bansal, A. 2000). It is essential to get adequate training and mastery<br />
over such tools <strong>for</strong> effectively handling knowledge management activities.<br />
iii) Managerial Skills<br />
Continually changing knowledge environment poses new and unexpected<br />
challenges from all perspectives. In day to day administration librarians faces many<br />
challenges and it is more essential <strong>for</strong> Librarians to demonstrate highest level of<br />
managerial skills. Hence, Librarians are also <strong>for</strong>ced to per<strong>for</strong>m as managers managing<br />
multifaceted tasks. Some of the managerial skills are knowledge organization and<br />
management, interpersonal and human relation skills, scientific management of<br />
4
knowledge process, optimal utilization of resources, per<strong>for</strong>mance evaluation and<br />
enhancement of per<strong>for</strong>mance of team members etc. (Das, Kshirod et al 2006).<br />
iv) Leadership Skills<br />
Leadership is a process of influencing and supporting others to work<br />
enthusiastically towards achieving objectivities of organization. Integration of<br />
advanced technology, multidisciplinary research and complex user in<strong>for</strong>mation needs<br />
of institutions of higher learning demand that libraries provide cutting edge<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation support to them. Hence, Libraries are employing large number of persons<br />
with different skill sets. These employees create an efficient knowledge environment<br />
conducive <strong>for</strong> research. Managing a huge library and resource centre with all its<br />
complexities require librarians with good leadership skills. Some of the essential<br />
leadership skills are intelligence, self confidence, tact and diplomacy, will power &<br />
flexibility, excellent human relations, judgment, integrity etc.<br />
v) In<strong>for</strong>mation Skills<br />
With in<strong>for</strong>mation being made available in several <strong>for</strong>mats, retrieving<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation has become a tedious task. This difficulty is compounded by the<br />
availability of too much of in<strong>for</strong>mation. In this scenario, it is necessary <strong>for</strong> Librarians<br />
to have mastery over tools & techniques, strategies, engines and technologies related<br />
to in<strong>for</strong>mation search process. They must develop ability to evaluate in<strong>for</strong>mation and<br />
select and disseminate the most suitable in<strong>for</strong>mation according to users needs.<br />
vi) Communication Skills<br />
In this knowledge environment, Librarian is the facilitator of access between<br />
knowledge and the user. No matter how much professional competence a librarian<br />
has, he will fail to deliver and satisfy users if he lacks communication and<br />
presentation skills. The in<strong>for</strong>mation professional will command respect and<br />
acceptance among users only through the strength of his communication skills. It is<br />
directly proportional factor. Librarians needs to be as emphatic listener to user<br />
demands and needs. He needs to communicate the importance and usefulness of<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation services to the users. Librarian also needs to have a trusted<br />
communication with team members to achieve organizational goods.<br />
5. CAPACITY BUILDING FOR KM: TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT<br />
AVENUES IN LIS<br />
Libraries, just like businesses, need to focus on building their capacity if they<br />
want to maximize their effect on the research and development community. LIS<br />
professionals need to dedicate themselves to raising capacity building to the same<br />
level of importance as that of their organization’s critical functions. There are some<br />
libraries like University of Hyderabad, IIT Madras, ISB Hyderabad, etc which have<br />
achieved capacity building to the maximum level. What propelled these libraries to<br />
new levels of effectiveness was not any single initiative, but rather a deliberate<br />
programme to enhance its capabilities at all levels, from its strategy to its systems and<br />
structure.<br />
Capacity Building of the whole organization (Libraries) certainly makes <strong>for</strong> an<br />
interesting topic. However, it is a vast and complex topic which needs to be<br />
deliberated in a comprehensive manner. So, this article is limited to studying the<br />
5
human resource development in the knowledge environment where in various training<br />
and development avenues available <strong>for</strong> LIS professionals are discussed<br />
Professional development is an important manifestation of capacity building<br />
and it is also a necessary response to a rapidly changing environment. Although<br />
professional development is an individual responsibility, it thrives on partnership with<br />
the associations and the institutions that share common goals and values with<br />
librarians. Though a lot depends upon the individual’s attitude and interest in<br />
acquiring skills, institutes do fare better when they have an institutionalized approach<br />
<strong>for</strong> preparing their human resources <strong>for</strong> the knowledge environment.<br />
Some of the possible avenues <strong>for</strong> training and development <strong>for</strong> LIS<br />
professionals are listed below.<br />
i) Refresher/Orientation Courses: The University Grants Commission has<br />
made it mandatory <strong>for</strong> all academic librarians in the college and university setup to<br />
attend them, by linking its participation to career advancement. Since these<br />
programmes are of 3 to 4 week duration, capacity building can be achieved at the<br />
maximum level by carefully including most of the key roles/responsibilities of<br />
librarians in the knowledge environment into the programme content. These<br />
programmes should also make an activity based training programme where more<br />
emphasis is also on practical.<br />
ii) Workshops: Workshops offer another effective mode of imparting training.<br />
Here the emphasis is more on providing hands on experience to the participants.<br />
National Institute of Rural Development, Hyderabad and Documentation <strong>Research</strong><br />
Training <strong>Centre</strong> Bangalore, NISCARE, New Delhi are some institutes which conduct<br />
several training programmes and have been found to be quite useful.<br />
iii) Conferences/Seminars: Professional Associations like Indian Library<br />
Association (ILA), Indian Association of Library and In<strong>for</strong>mation Center (IASLIC),<br />
Bombay Science Librarians’ Association (BOSLA), Madras Librarians Association,<br />
(MALA), Society <strong>for</strong> the Advancement of Library and In<strong>for</strong>mation Science (SALIS),<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation and Library Network (INFLIBNET), etc. are few associations which are<br />
active in organizing annual conferences/seminars on topics on knowledge<br />
environment. Participants actively participate by publishing and presenting their<br />
papers and also actively involving in the deliberations. However, one drawback of<br />
such conferences is that they impart theoretical knowledge and lack the practical<br />
training which is the need of the hour. This has been overcome by organizing the preconference<br />
tutorials <strong>for</strong> the interested participants.<br />
iv) Courses at Universities/Institutes: National <strong>Centre</strong> <strong>for</strong> Science In<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
(NCSI) conducts a one year advanced course in knowledge management <strong>for</strong><br />
librarians. INFLIBNET at Ahmedabad also conducts training courses of different<br />
duration. DELNET and NISCARE at New Delhi are some other institute which<br />
conducts training courses of different duration. These are quite contemporary and are<br />
designed to the specific needs of the profession and hence are highly successful.<br />
v) Distance Education Programmes: University of Hyderabad and IGNOU<br />
offer Post Graduate Diploma in Library Automation and Networking. Several<br />
universities are offering the PG Diploma in Computer Applications under distance<br />
mode. These courses are usually of one year duration with practical and theory classes<br />
being conducted twice <strong>for</strong> three to four weeks. However, its is observed that<br />
practically it is not possible to offer a thorough hand on practical and training to the<br />
6
candidates and they are expected to exercise and gain practical knowledge by relooking<br />
what is being taught at these courses.<br />
vi) Online Training Courses: This is a concept of e-learning where the lessons<br />
will be delivered and the candidates learn the subjects’ though desktops. One such<br />
example is IMARK. This is an e-learning initiative in in<strong>for</strong>mation management and is<br />
developed by FAO and partner organizations. (http://www.imarkgroup.org). Similarly<br />
UNESCO also has its portal on ICT education. World Intellectual Property<br />
Organization (WIPO) offers online courses in the area of Intellectual property and<br />
copyrights in digital environment.<br />
vii) Assigning Special Projects: Challenging projects can instill new<br />
enthusiasm in the staff and make them learn new skills in order to complete the<br />
project. This also makes one staff to share his knowledge with others. By having a<br />
team of mixed skills, organizations are providing training to the less talented staff by<br />
work shadow (Observation and trying) methods.<br />
viii) On the job training: Consultants can be hired in order to determine the<br />
training needs and then actually deliver the training. By structuring the content and<br />
delivery of training process, every library can be in control of the capacity<br />
development programme and effectively monitor the progress as well.<br />
ix) Self-learning: Some staff members are very enthusiastic and interested in<br />
expanding their skill set in this knowledge environment. Such staff should be<br />
encouraged by providing those facilities like computers, internet access, literature to<br />
read and then possibly having an effective liaison with the computer department in the<br />
organization<br />
6. CONTINUOUS LEARNING: EMPLOYMENT SECURITY VS<br />
EMPLOYABILITY<br />
Developments in the In<strong>for</strong>mation Communication technologies are reshaping<br />
the world of learning and of scholarly communication. The way teachers teach, the<br />
way a student learns has been influenced by these developments. The influence of the<br />
same is also profound on LIS professionals.<br />
Suddenly, the traditional skills evolved and practiced in a manual manner like<br />
gathering, organizing, storing and retrieving in<strong>for</strong>mation are becoming less relevant in<br />
this knowledge environment. Knowledge environment challenges librarians are to<br />
manage an ever exploding body of in<strong>for</strong>mation, integrating electronic, print and nonprint<br />
resources into a seamless highway of services. Librarians now find themselves<br />
on the leading edge in the delivery of scholarly in<strong>for</strong>mation. The availability of<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation resources marketed directly to the end-user is unprecedented. The same<br />
skills like gathering, organizing, storing and retrieving, which were done in a manual<br />
manner now needs to be done in a more complex ICT enabled knowledge<br />
environment.<br />
In this competitive environment, it is futile <strong>for</strong> LIS professionals to think<br />
about job security. Present job market is per<strong>for</strong>mance oriented and if one does not<br />
upgrade his skills to suit the knowledge environment, he/she will find it difficult to<br />
see progress in one’s career. Unless LIS professionals develop those skills related to<br />
new found responsibilities/roles discussed earlier, their category may decided as mere<br />
support staff and not crucial and to be retrenched at the first available opportunity.<br />
This dreadful situation has also given rise to several challenges to LIS professionals.<br />
7
Those librarians who have the needed set of knowledge management skills are in<br />
great demand and are employable all the times. The strategic position of librarians in<br />
the knowledge environment has never been more promising.<br />
7. CONCLUSION<br />
When we compare the role of LIS profession in those traditional days to their<br />
role expected in this knowledge environment, what we see is that the roles have<br />
remained same. What has changed is how these roles are per<strong>for</strong>med. Today’s LIS<br />
profession relies heavily on ICT tools <strong>for</strong> knowledge management activities.<br />
Knowledge environment has posed several challenges which are no doubt staggering.<br />
While the great core of principles, practices and values they espouse remains relevant,<br />
the skills and knowledge required to per<strong>for</strong>m their jobs are constantly changing.<br />
These developments require increased technological skills to ensure appropriate and<br />
effective action on the part of in<strong>for</strong>mation professionals.<br />
REFERENCES<br />
1. Balyan, R K; Knowledge management and human resource development. Indian Journal<br />
of Training and Development, <strong>2007</strong>,35(1), 125-137.<br />
2. Bansal, A; Knowledge management: A review. DESIDOC Bulletin of In<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
Technology, 2000, 20(4), 3-9.<br />
3. Das, K; Chauhan, K and Jena, S; Skill, competency and development of professional<br />
staff in challenging dynamic web environment. In H. Chandra (Ed.), Initiatives in<br />
Libraries and In<strong>for</strong>mation Centers in the Digital Era. Proceedings of the National<br />
Conference Papers, Coimbatore: SALIS , 8-10, Jul 2006, pp225-229.<br />
4. Halkar, GG and Gupta, S; Knowledge management: A challenge <strong>for</strong> the 21st century.<br />
Indian Journal of Training and Development, 2005, 35(1), 53-61.<br />
5. Hawkins, B; . Libraries, knowledge management, and higher education in electronic<br />
environment, 2000. Retrieved May 11, <strong>2007</strong>, from http://conferences.alia.org.au<br />
/alia2000/proceedings/brian.hawkins.html.<br />
6. Jain, KK; Knowledge sharing: Role of human resource development. Indian Journal of<br />
Training and Development, 2005, 35(4), 5-18.<br />
7. Mertins, K; Heisig, P and Vorbeck, J; Knowledge management: Best practices in Europe.<br />
Berlin: Springer, 2001.<br />
8. Mestri, M; Kumbargoudar, P; and Gobbur, DS; Design of training programmes <strong>for</strong> LIS<br />
professionals in emerging ICT environment, 2006. In H. Chandra (Ed.), Initiatives in<br />
Libraries and In<strong>for</strong>mation Centers in the Digital Era. Proceedings of the National<br />
Conference Papers, Coimbatore: SALIS 8-10, Jul , pp230-237.<br />
9. Pitroda, S; National Knowledge Commission – Report to the Nation 2006. New Delhi:<br />
National Knowledge Commission, Government of India, 2006<br />
8
Role of library and in<strong>for</strong>mation professionals in the<br />
knowledge environment<br />
E.Soundararajan*, C.Jayakumar* and M.Somasekharan *<br />
Abstract<br />
Today we live in a knowledge society where the in<strong>for</strong>mation is available to the users as they<br />
require regardless of physical boundaries, <strong>for</strong>mats, time etc. The revolutionary innovations of in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
and communication technologies have changed the ways in which people think, communicate and share<br />
knowledge. Libraries play a vital role in the knowledge dissemination process and management. In this<br />
context, the library and in<strong>for</strong>mation professionals have great challenges be<strong>for</strong>e them. Library professionals<br />
started migrating to become knowledge professionals. The Internet technologies coupled with the<br />
infrastructural advancements are helping the professionals in serving users better. This paper highlights<br />
the new generation library, library users and the challenges be<strong>for</strong>e the library professionals.<br />
Keywords: Knowledge Management, In<strong>for</strong>mation Management<br />
1. INTRODUCTION<br />
Libraries are facing the major trans<strong>for</strong>mational changes due to the advancements<br />
of in<strong>for</strong>mation and communication technologies. The technological changes has<br />
challenged and made obsolete many current practices of providing library services. The<br />
role of the library has always been to provide the best of possible services to all patrons,<br />
possibly at all times. With competition from the World Wide Web, there is a sheer need<br />
<strong>for</strong> the librarians to provide a ‘face-lift’ to their current outlook and services. In the<br />
digital era, librarians, system persons, and record managers must be able to work with<br />
digital media as easily as they have worked with paper. They must be able to curate<br />
electronic collections, including the ability to select, acquire, describe, organize,<br />
reference, and preserve these digital works.<br />
2. KNOWLEDGE ENVIRONMENT<br />
Knowledge environment facilitates the collaborative knowledge building,<br />
decision making, and knowledge discovery depending upon the knowledge society.<br />
Knowledge management is the process of trans<strong>for</strong>ming in<strong>for</strong>mation and intellectual<br />
assets into enduring value. It connects people with the knowledge that they need to take<br />
action, when they need it. In the corporate sector, managing knowledge is considered key<br />
to achieving breakthrough competitive advantage. The key to knowledge management is<br />
capturing the knowledge. Two different types of in<strong>for</strong>mation are necessary to accomplish<br />
this: explicit and tacit. Explicit in<strong>for</strong>mation is packaged, easily codified, transferable, and<br />
communicable. Tacit in<strong>for</strong>mation, on the other hand, is personal, context-specific,<br />
difficult to <strong>for</strong>malize, and hard to communicate and transfer. Combining these two types<br />
* Scientific In<strong>for</strong>mation Resource Division, <strong>Indira</strong> <strong>Gandhi</strong> <strong>Centre</strong> <strong>for</strong> <strong>Atomic</strong> <strong>Research</strong>, Kalpakkam -<br />
603102, Tamilnadu, Email: sound@igcar.gov.in<br />
9
of in<strong>for</strong>mation using <strong>for</strong>mal and in<strong>for</strong>mal in<strong>for</strong>mation provides the perceived value of<br />
knowledge management.<br />
3. NEW FACES OF LIBRARIAN<br />
Librarians are <strong>for</strong>ced to adapt with the fast growing technology. We witness the<br />
tremendous changes that took place in the library services such as infrastructure, content<br />
creation, collection development, user interface, in<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge management<br />
strategies etc. Digital libraries are the library without physical boundaries. Patrons could<br />
access the in<strong>for</strong>mation at any place, any time, anywhere and in any <strong>for</strong>mat. The<br />
expectations from the users have gone up into a high level that the librarians are trying to<br />
meet with continuous learning<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
Manager<br />
Network<br />
Manager<br />
Knowledge<br />
Manager<br />
LIS Professional<br />
Facilitator Trainer Innovator<br />
3.1 In<strong>for</strong>mation Manager<br />
Fig 1: Multifaceted LIS Professional<br />
The work of librarians is increasingly varied as it expands to keep up with the<br />
flow of in<strong>for</strong>mation. Librarians work with the computer experts to create and manage<br />
web sites and intranets <strong>for</strong> the library. Librarians have to analyze, describe and organize<br />
the digital resources such as e-books, scanned images etc <strong>for</strong> efficient retrieval by the<br />
patrons. The librarian is responsible <strong>for</strong> managing the in<strong>for</strong>mation resources, the<br />
infrastructure and staff to meet the in<strong>for</strong>mation needs of the users.<br />
10
3.2 Facilitator/ Trainer<br />
Librarian also play the role of in<strong>for</strong>mation facilitator / trainer. Their main business<br />
is to enhance the in<strong>for</strong>mation literacy among the users of an organization. In addition to<br />
training, other activities (e.g. the development of support tools and services) would be<br />
incorporated to help facilitate the ease with which users can access in<strong>for</strong>mation more<br />
efficiently and effectively.<br />
3.3 Network manager<br />
The library and in<strong>for</strong>mation professionals must often be network specialists. This<br />
includes not only the physical networking technology to connect computers, workstations<br />
and peripherals with the central institutional computer , with CD-ROM and other<br />
physical in<strong>for</strong>mation servers at the institutional level and also the integration of various<br />
computer technology within an institutional network. It also includes the networking<br />
technology of the Internet Protocol (TCP-IP) and various other aspects of virtual<br />
connections with the world wide network of in<strong>for</strong>mation sources. In smaller institutions,<br />
the librarian may be required to setup or maintain the web server, produce HTML-pages<br />
both <strong>for</strong> the library and the institution itself, and set up Internet services like training<br />
sessions, trouble-shooting, and specialized in<strong>for</strong>mation services like RSS and blogs. A<br />
close interaction with organizational network administrators will help to enhance the<br />
knowledge and ensures sustained in<strong>for</strong>mation services to the users.<br />
3.4 Frontier of latest technology<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation resources from the Internet influence the content of the library's<br />
collection policy and require inclusion of electronic journals, current awareness services,<br />
document delivery and even ephemeral in<strong>for</strong>mation resources from the Internet.<br />
Librarians and in<strong>for</strong>mation professionals will have to be familiar with key Internet<br />
resources and even provide their own content. Library 2.0 has become the buzz word.<br />
Librarians have to start migrate to become Librarian 2.0, This require them to know<br />
several web 2.0 technologies such as RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Wikis, Blogs,<br />
Web tools, Technology standards and protocols.<br />
3.5 Knowledge Manager<br />
Identification, Verification, Acquisition, Organization and Dissemination - these<br />
are the traditional services provided by librarians since the emergence of the library<br />
services. In the last few years librarians have again had to expand their area of expertise<br />
to include digital in<strong>for</strong>mation, including areas of the World Wide Web. And they are<br />
expected to redefine themselves again. This time, as knowledge managers to manage the<br />
knowledge of the organization. Knowledge is people, content, practices or processes and<br />
intellectual capital. The Librarian will be the idea person to manage the knowledge of the<br />
support organization. He can be the knowledge manager <strong>for</strong> training organization who<br />
can take the complete responsibility <strong>for</strong> training content, delivery model and so on. Being<br />
the Knowledge Manager means that creating value to the firm by facilitating access to<br />
11
high quality in<strong>for</strong>mation and by networking people and their ideas together using the<br />
technological infrastructure. The emphasis will shift from technical skills in the library to<br />
communication, facilitation, training and management skills (e.g. strategic and marketing<br />
management).<br />
4. THE LIBRARIANS OF FUTURE<br />
The trans<strong>for</strong>mation from librarian to knowledge manager is clearly underway;<br />
however, a deeper look at the direction that the Internet is taking research reveals the<br />
possibility of more far-reaching changes. As many business processes move to the<br />
Internet, the use of in<strong>for</strong>mation will become integrated with the systems and services. In<br />
this environment, in<strong>for</strong>mation as a distinct function or resource may no longer exist. To<br />
adjust to these more far-reaching changes, in<strong>for</strong>mation professionals must search beyond<br />
current bounds (e.g. librarian, in<strong>for</strong>mation, knowledge management) and think in terms<br />
of benefits to their organizations. Right now, in<strong>for</strong>mation can be used to enhance<br />
competitiveness and productivity. If in<strong>for</strong>mation is to be seamlessly integrated with<br />
transaction processes, then someone must scope out work-related behaviors to ensure that<br />
it is done in the most efficient and effective manner. And, if equal in<strong>for</strong>mation and<br />
technology is available to everyone, then competition rests on the ability to interpret and<br />
apply these tools. Clearly the impending shift to knowledge management (and beyond)<br />
represents an exciting change <strong>for</strong> library and in<strong>for</strong>mation professionals. However, it's an<br />
opportunity that requires a great deal of preparation, and a new way of thinking.<br />
5. CONCLUSION<br />
Thus, the role of the librarian is evolving to network specialist, in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
broker, systems designer and knowledge manager to mention only a few directions. In<br />
essence, an overall intensification of specialization both in the technological aspects of<br />
library and in<strong>for</strong>mation services, as well as stronger subject-oriented competencies and<br />
evaluative abilities are being demanded from the in<strong>for</strong>mation professionals and should be<br />
taken into consideration both in the training and education of professionals as well as in<br />
in-service continuing education to meet the changing technological demands at the<br />
organization.<br />
REFERENCES<br />
1. Wendy Jordan and Victoria Ward. The Role of the Librarian in a Knowledge Society,<br />
The proceedings of a lecture/workshop at Sultan Qaboos University, 19 February 2001.<br />
2. Diann Rusch-Feja, New Roles <strong>for</strong> Librarians in Supporting <strong>Research</strong>ers in the Social<br />
Sciences: The Impact of New Technology, 62nd IFLA General Conference - Conference<br />
Proceedings - August 25-31, 1996.<br />
3. Olivia Crosby. Librarians: In<strong>for</strong>mation experts in the in<strong>for</strong>mation age. Occupational<br />
Outlook Quarterly, 2000-01.<br />
4. Beyond ‘Library 2.0 and “Library 2.0”’ URL: <br />
12
Opportunities <strong>for</strong> Librarians/In<strong>for</strong>mation Managers<br />
in managing explicit knowledge in the internet era<br />
D.Gayatri *<br />
Abstract<br />
The development of knowledge management in recent years has become the key concern <strong>for</strong><br />
librarians and libraries. Powerful new technologies <strong>for</strong> capturing,storing,retrieving and sharing<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation are fast becoming the building blocks of a new knowledge infrastructure. In this paper a<br />
knowledge management approach <strong>for</strong> a research institute is presented. It will also examine the role of<br />
librarians/libraries in knowledge management and suggests that librarians/libraries in the digital and<br />
knowledge age should be in charge of knowledge management in their respective organizations in<br />
order to leverage the intellectual assets and to facilitate knowledge creation.<br />
1. INTRODUCTION<br />
The concept and name--“Knowledge Management”--was started and<br />
popularized in the business world during the last decade of the 20th century. It was<br />
the business world that first recognizes the importance of knowledge in the “global<br />
economy” of the “knowledge age”. The applications of knowledge management have<br />
now spread to other organizations including government agencies, research and<br />
development departments, universities, and others. Managing knowledge has become<br />
increasingly important in research organisations. By the process of knowledge<br />
management (KM),companies organise the way in which they create and use their<br />
institutional and collective knowledge.<br />
Christine Tindall, Technical Director of KM in Ernest and Young Co.,<br />
highlighted that “ One good librarian is worth 100 databases”. Her statement<br />
emphasizes that, KM is about more than technology and databases. It is about<br />
connecting people to experts, people to in<strong>for</strong>m and the utilization of that in<strong>for</strong>mation.<br />
It is also about understanding how people learn and make it possible <strong>for</strong> them to do<br />
so, how organizational structures and infrastructures affect the building of knowledge<br />
and how organizational procedures, rewards and values affect the sharing of<br />
knowledge. But at the heart of every organization is its need to manage the<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation it owns and acquires, to utilize it <strong>for</strong> competitive advantage to interpret it<br />
in a way that assists decision making to build a secure in<strong>for</strong>mation based organization<br />
to underpin the KM environment.<br />
The skills of library and in<strong>for</strong>mation professional are becoming a vital part of<br />
the process. In<strong>for</strong>mation management can be leveraged to achieve a "knowledge<br />
environment". In<strong>for</strong>mation professionals associated typically with IM have the<br />
theoretical basis and practical skills to provide the essential elements of a knowledge<br />
environment. However, they are rarely seen as relevant to creating a knowledge<br />
environment<br />
The management of in<strong>for</strong>mation has long been regarded as the domain of<br />
librarians and libraries. Librarians and in<strong>for</strong>mation professionals are trained to be<br />
experts in in<strong>for</strong>mation searching, selecting, acquiring, organizing, preserving,<br />
repackaging, disseminating, and serving. However, professionals in in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
technology and systems have also regarded in<strong>for</strong>mation management as their domain<br />
because of the recent advances in in<strong>for</strong>mation technology and systems which drive<br />
* IMA, IICT, Hyderabad. Email: gayatri.divakaruni@gmail.com<br />
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and underpin in<strong>for</strong>mation management. One of the clearest evidences of this is that<br />
the positions of “Chief In<strong>for</strong>mation Officer” (CIO) in many organizations are<br />
generally held by in<strong>for</strong>mation technologists instead of librarians. In fact, most of the<br />
work of CIO’s has to do with developing and managing the IT infrastructure and<br />
systems, not the managing of in<strong>for</strong>mation per se.<br />
With the growing interest in knowledge management, many questions have<br />
been raised in the minds of librarians regarding: the difference between in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
and knowledge; between in<strong>for</strong>mation management and knowledge management; who<br />
should be in charge of in<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge management; would librarians and<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation professionals with appropriate education and training in library and<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation science be most suitable <strong>for</strong> the position of “Chief Knowledge Officer”<br />
(CKO) in their organizations; and what libraries can do in implementing knowledge<br />
management.<br />
2. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE<br />
Data trans<strong>for</strong>ms into in<strong>for</strong>mation, in<strong>for</strong>mation trans<strong>for</strong>ms into knowledge and<br />
knowledge drives and underpins behavior and decision-making. Below are simple<br />
definitions of Data, In<strong>for</strong>mation, Knowledge, and Wisdom—all of them are available<br />
within every organization:<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge can be as:<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation is visible, independent from action and decision, different in<br />
<strong>for</strong>mat after processing, physical product, independent from existing environment,<br />
easily transferable, and duplicable.<br />
Knowledge is invisible, closely related to action and decision, different in<br />
thought after processing, spiritual product, identified with existing environment,<br />
transferable through learning, and not duplicable.<br />
In the business world, two types of knowledge have been noted. They are explicit<br />
knowledge and tacit knowledge. Jan Duffy defines explicit knowledge as<br />
“knowledge that is documented and public; structured, fixed-content, externalized,<br />
and conscious” and tacit knowledge as “personal, undocumented knowledge;<br />
context-sensitive, dynamically-created and derived, internalized, and experiencebased;<br />
often resides in the human minds.<br />
3. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS<br />
What is knowledge management?” Jennifer Rowley definition is Knowledge<br />
management is concerned with the exploitation and development of the knowledge<br />
assets of an organization with a view to furthering the organization’s objectives. The<br />
knowledge to be managed includes both explicit, documented knowledge, and tacit,<br />
subjective knowledge. Management entails all of those processes associated with the<br />
identification, sharing and creation of knowledge. This requires systems <strong>for</strong> the<br />
creation and maintenance of knowledge repositories, and to cultivate and facilitate the<br />
sharing of knowledge and organizational learning. Organizations that succeed in<br />
knowledge management are likely to view knowledge as an asset. These<br />
organizations will develop norms and policies <strong>for</strong> fostering knowledge creation and<br />
sharing activities.<br />
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4. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN LIBRARIES<br />
While the business world is changing in the new knowledge economy and<br />
digital age, libraries of all types are undergoing drastic changes also. The new role of<br />
libraries in the 21st century needs to be as a learning and knowledge center <strong>for</strong> their<br />
users as well as the intellectual commons <strong>for</strong> their respective communities where, to<br />
borrow the phrase from the Keystone Principles, “people and ideas interact in both<br />
the real and virtual environments to expand learning and facilitate the creation of new<br />
knowledge.<br />
As a learning organization, libraries should provide a strong leadership in<br />
knowledge management. Unlike those business organizations whose goal <strong>for</strong><br />
knowledge management is <strong>for</strong> competitive advantage, most public, academic, and<br />
research libraries, with the exception of company libraries (which may be known or<br />
called corporate libraries, special libraries, or knowledge centers), have a different<br />
orientation and value. Instead of competition, internal use only, and little sharing of<br />
knowledge with others outside, the most important mission of public, academic, and<br />
research libraries is to expand the access of knowledge <strong>for</strong> their users and stated<br />
below what libraries can do to improve their knowledge management in all of the key<br />
areas of library services.<br />
5. KNOWLEDGE RESOURCES MANAGEMENT<br />
Because of the exponential growth in human knowledge in a variety of<br />
<strong>for</strong>mats, libraries need to develop their resources access and sharing strategies from<br />
printed to electronic and digital resources. Restricted by limited funding, technology,<br />
staff, and space, libraries must carefully analyze the needs of their users and seek to<br />
develop cooperative acquisition plans to meet these needs. The changing concept<br />
from “ownership” to “access” and from “just in case” to “just in time” should be the<br />
goal of a sound resources development strategy.<br />
An integrated online public access catalog (OPAC) with both internal and<br />
external resources as well as printed and other <strong>for</strong>mats of knowledge should be<br />
developed and maintained. Useful websites and knowledge sources should be<br />
regularly searched and selected from the Internet and included in OPACs by hard<br />
links. A system <strong>for</strong> the reviewing and updating of these resources should be<br />
per<strong>for</strong>med.<br />
Going beyond explicit knowledge, libraries should also develop means to<br />
capture all that tacit knowledge that is of importance to their users, their<br />
organizations, and to the internal operation of libraries. The web site of each library<br />
should serve as a portal <strong>for</strong> all sources of selective and relevant knowledge and<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation whether explicit or tacit, whether on site or remote, and in all <strong>for</strong>mats.<br />
6. THE INTERNET<br />
The Internet can provide comprehensive in<strong>for</strong>mation in a diversity of subjects<br />
<strong>for</strong> a variety of needs and to various categories of users at any point of time. The<br />
Internet is the largest single resource of in<strong>for</strong>mation available on a network of<br />
computers, which can be accessed anytime through any Internet-connected computer<br />
irrespective of its location. The Internet is changing the roles of in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
professionals and way we process and transfer in<strong>for</strong>mation. In<strong>for</strong>mation is<br />
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everywhere on the Internet, existing in large quantities and continuously being<br />
created, revised and updated. This in<strong>for</strong>mation exists in several <strong>for</strong>mats and is created<br />
<strong>for</strong> multiple purposes. Various kinds of in<strong>for</strong>mation exist on the Internet which<br />
comprises different levels of quality or reliability. It ranges from very high quality to<br />
low quality and includes every shade in between. Identification, location and selection<br />
of worthwhile and useful digital collections have become one of the important jobs of<br />
modern professional librarians.<br />
7. WORLD WIDE WEB<br />
With the digital revolution, data and in<strong>for</strong>mation can now be transmitted to all<br />
corners of the world, and that is significant <strong>for</strong> almost all humanity, and it is<br />
significant <strong>for</strong> libraries. The World Wide Web has many of the features of a digital<br />
library, and if the web did not exist our conception of digital libraries would be very<br />
different. The web is undoubtedly the means via which most digital libraries are<br />
accessed, but it is not a digital library itself as it lacks characteristics of a digital<br />
library. It is not a managed environment, it has no collection development principles<br />
and most significant of all, the digital objects are not perceived as having durable<br />
value. Librarians are always at the <strong>for</strong>efront of the latest technologies in order to find<br />
new ways to optimize the management of libraries and resources, and to provide<br />
improved services.<br />
8. INFORMATION RETRIEVAL<br />
The creation of large amounts of separate digital documents, which are then<br />
stored in a document repository, has created an additional market <strong>for</strong> archiving and<br />
retrieval systems. With the user community in mind the in<strong>for</strong>mation retrieval<br />
pathways should be designed. Search engines that can deal with unstructured data are<br />
an important part of a KM solution. An organization be able to reach across<br />
application boundaries to find in<strong>for</strong>mation by using an integrated search tool.<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation retrieval plays an important role in knowledge management. The<br />
issue is how a user can locate relevant in<strong>for</strong>mation effectively and sufficiently high<br />
quality to help in per<strong>for</strong>ming the task. The acquisition of knowledge can be got not<br />
only by gathering existing knowledge within the organization, but also by acquiring<br />
various sources, to fulfill a precise demand. The Internet has reduced the distances<br />
between the providers and consumers of knowledge. It has opened up multiple<br />
avenues <strong>for</strong> library and in<strong>for</strong>mation centers to storage and organization of explicit<br />
knowledge. The dissemination of such knowledge to the necessary point of action in<br />
an organization is possible through multiple methods of electronic delivery systems.<br />
Another <strong>for</strong>m of in<strong>for</strong>mation retrieval could be initiated by the system than by a user.<br />
This is often called “Push technology”. Users can subscribe to areas of interest and<br />
receive updated via email delivery.<br />
9. IMPLEMENTATION<br />
Intranet network based is accessible only by the organisation’s members,<br />
employees allowed to interact with in<strong>for</strong>mation. An intranet site often looks and acts<br />
just like an Internet site.<br />
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Intranets offer several facilities that aid knowledge sharing:<br />
• Easy-to-access and use – The use of WWW browsers give a low cost and<br />
easy to use interface to in<strong>for</strong>mation and applications.<br />
• Universal access to in<strong>for</strong>mation – In<strong>for</strong>mation can be kept on any ‘server’<br />
on the network, and can be accessed from anywhere within the intranet.<br />
• Person to person interaction – Intranets simplify interaction between<br />
people in different locations through electronic mail and computer<br />
conferencing.<br />
• In<strong>for</strong>mal networks – Publishing in<strong>for</strong>mation and making contact is quick<br />
and in<strong>for</strong>mal on an Intranet.<br />
• Access to external in<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge – Intranets usually has<br />
gateways to the external Internet, which give access to rapidly growing<br />
global in<strong>for</strong>mation resources.<br />
Security and personalization<br />
As different users need different views of knowledge base, Personalization<br />
taps into user profiles to control what content is offered. After checking the security to<br />
view a page, personalization can apply the user’s preferences <strong>for</strong> how and what to<br />
present on the page.<br />
In the current digital and networked knowledge age, the size of in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
resources on the Web is growing exponentially. No one really knows exactly how<br />
many Web pages are on the Internet because new Web pages are added every second.<br />
For examples, according to the November 11, 2004 report of the Search Engine<br />
Watch, Goggle claimed to have indexed 8.1 billion Web pages; MSN: 5.0 billion Web<br />
pages; Yahoo: 4.2 billion Web pages; and Ask Jeeves: 2.5 billion Web pages.<br />
Universities and research organizations are themselves knowledge reservoirs.<br />
These highly valued intellectual assets, regardless of whether they are explicit or tacit,<br />
should be inventoried, archived, indexed, frequently updated, and made accessible in<br />
digital <strong>for</strong>m.<br />
10. TIMELY DELIVERY OF INFORMATION<br />
Dr. S.R.Ranganathan’s philosophy of in<strong>for</strong>mation management has long been<br />
“ the right in<strong>for</strong>mation to the right person at the right time”. Add to this “ in the right<br />
<strong>for</strong>mat” and you have a summary of the role of in<strong>for</strong>mation professionals.<br />
The in<strong>for</strong>mation skill helps us to know how and when in<strong>for</strong>mation is used, its<br />
significance to a process, the most relevant sources and the best means of delivery.<br />
The consolidated from diverse in<strong>for</strong>mation inputs and delivered at the most<br />
appropriate time is key to leveraging in<strong>for</strong>mation to build knowledge.<br />
The use of in<strong>for</strong>mation and explicit knowledge resources becomes<br />
increasingly in research techniques, sources and internal KM tools will become key.<br />
The modern library and in<strong>for</strong>mation skills play an important part in facilitating<br />
desktop delivery of in<strong>for</strong>mation and in managing mediated in<strong>for</strong>mation services, their<br />
utilization across the range of in<strong>for</strong>mation within the organization, increasing the<br />
value derived from their employment.<br />
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11. RESOURCES SHARING AND NETWORKING<br />
Libraries have had a long tradition of resources sharing and networking. These<br />
have been greatly expanded by the rapid development of computer,<br />
telecommunication, networking, and digital technologies since the 1960s. In the U.S.<br />
it is very common <strong>for</strong> libraries to be a member of several consortia at the same time<br />
<strong>for</strong> various types of cooperative work and resources sharing. The best examples of<br />
these are the OCLC Online Computer Library Center and OhioLINK (Ohio Library<br />
and In<strong>for</strong>mation Network).<br />
12. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT<br />
To facilitate the implementation of knowledge management, a well-designed<br />
and operational knowledge management system should be in place. Latest<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation technology should be used as an enabler. In this regard, the library<br />
director should consider him/her self as the chief knowledge officer of the entire<br />
organization and should work together with the CIO, heads of the planning<br />
department, the computer and in<strong>for</strong>mation technology center, the human resources<br />
management department, the finance department, etc. to design and develop such a<br />
system. Such a knowledge management system should be built on existing computer<br />
and in<strong>for</strong>mation technology infrastructures, including upgraded intranet, extranet, and<br />
Internet, and available software programs to facilitate the capture, analysis,<br />
organization, storage, and sharing of internal and external in<strong>for</strong>mation resources <strong>for</strong><br />
effective knowledge exchange among users, resource persons (faculty, researchers,<br />
and subjects specialists, etc.), publishers, government agencies, businesses and<br />
industries, and other organizations via multiple channels and layers. In recent years,<br />
many of the newly developed in<strong>for</strong>mation technologies <strong>for</strong> database and<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation/document management can be utilized in knowledge management; such<br />
as, data warehousing, data mining, text mining, content management, knowledge<br />
extraction, knowledge mapping, groupware, and in<strong>for</strong>mation visualization, etc.<br />
13. USER SERVICES<br />
The utmost goal of knowledge management is to provide users with a variety<br />
of quality services in order to improve the communication, use and creation of<br />
knowledge. As much as possible these services should be tailored to the interest and<br />
needs of each user. In<strong>for</strong>mation about each user can be obtained by analyzing the<br />
records of user registration, surveys, circulation and interlibrary loans, frequently<br />
asked reference questions, and the use of e-journal and digital resources, etc. User<br />
satisfaction and needs should be collected through periodic users’ surveys. The<br />
findings should be used <strong>for</strong> the planning and redesign of library services. It is very<br />
important, however, that user’s privacy should always be protected.<br />
Some of the manual services such as “new publication alert” and “selective<br />
dissemination of in<strong>for</strong>mation,” which libraries have been providing, can now be done<br />
automatically by employing the “push technology” with great efficiency and<br />
convenience.<br />
18
14. HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT<br />
Library staff and users, both in and outside the libraries, possess a great<br />
amount of expert knowledge. In university and research communities such expertise is<br />
abundant and should be inventoried, indexed, and updated regularly and be made<br />
searchable and accessible through electronic databases created and maintained by<br />
libraries. The knowledge and accumulated experiences of library staff members <strong>for</strong>m<br />
the intellectual assets of any library and should be valued and shared. An<br />
organizational culture <strong>for</strong> sharing of knowledge and expertise should be established<br />
with appropriate rewards and incentives. Those staff members who share their tacit<br />
knowledge and experiences through writing, publishing, lecturing, tutoring, or<br />
mentoring should be appropriately recognized and rewarded. An organizational<br />
culture which emphasizes cooperation, sharing, and innovation can only be<br />
established by strong leadership and commitment from the library director and a<br />
shared vision by the library staff. As a learning organization, libraries should allocate<br />
annual funding to provide continuing education and staff training to all staff members.<br />
Knowledge must be renewed and expanded to prevent it from becoming stagnant.<br />
Libraries should also encourage the transfer of knowledge and experience from<br />
experienced staff to new staff members Special interest groups and chat rooms can be<br />
created through intranet. Since many valuable experiences have been accumulated<br />
over time, libraries should pay attention to favorable working conditions and<br />
environment, which will contribute to better staff retention.<br />
Education and Training of Library and in<strong>for</strong>mation Professionals<br />
Clearly, an aspiring Library and in<strong>for</strong>mation Professional needs to know the<br />
basics of IT, particularly in the area of computer, communication and networking<br />
technologies. The professional also needs to know the principles and techniques of<br />
how one structures and organizes in<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge so that the right<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation can be retrieved and so routed at the right time. This would include all the<br />
traditional core skills of library and in<strong>for</strong>mation science, specifically indexing,<br />
cataloguing and authority control, and the creation of synthetic structures to reach the<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation.<br />
The Internet, in particular, as an in<strong>for</strong>mation service/system will have a<br />
multiple impact on several areas of LIS as an educational program. Hence present<br />
curricula of LIS should specifically be updated with:<br />
• The impact of the Internet on society and Libraries.<br />
• The Internet as an in<strong>for</strong>mation sources Channel of communication<br />
• Organization in<strong>for</strong>mation through Internet.<br />
• In<strong>for</strong>mation retrieval through the Internet.<br />
• Design of in<strong>for</strong>mation services using the Internet<br />
• Internet databases and interfacing<br />
• Web page design and authoring<br />
15. CONCLUSION<br />
For any library to succeed in implementing knowledge management will<br />
require a strong leadership and vision from the top administration, which can<br />
19
influence the organization’s knowledge sharing ef<strong>for</strong>ts in a positive way. As libraries<br />
enter the knowledge age of the 21st century, we should not take a back seat in the<br />
development of knowledge management. Instead, armed with our professional<br />
knowledge and experiences, we should be in the driver’s seat.<br />
Librarians have plenty of opportunities of helping their users, that too in their<br />
search <strong>for</strong> in<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge of the human experience of the past,<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation about the present and a vision of the future Some new learning<br />
components are needed to be included in the user education programmes in recent<br />
years in libraries as the libraries of Today is not the same of libraries of yesterday<br />
The presence of the Internet, Intranet & Extranet have unquestionably and<br />
permanently altered the library environment. The technology has dramatically altered<br />
how libraries interact with one another, and how in<strong>for</strong>mation of all types is managed.<br />
However, the ease with which an Intranet is created and the power it enables<br />
organizations to easily and inexpensively share in<strong>for</strong>mation there is a price, and that<br />
price is the problem of organizing the in<strong>for</strong>mation so that its intended audience can<br />
benefit. The challenge of the Intranet <strong>for</strong> librarians is the opportunity to continue to do<br />
what we've always done - take a leadership role in the management of in<strong>for</strong>mation in<br />
the new age. Actual use of the extranet shares many properties with intranet use. It<br />
may even be reasonable to assume some amount of training on the part of the users,<br />
since they will be motivated to improve the efficiency of their services by making<br />
better use of library extranet. Through email, groupware, one can point to people with<br />
knowledge and connect people who need to share knowledge over a distance. If<br />
networking technology is fully exploited within a library, a trans<strong>for</strong>mation would take<br />
place in the organizational structure of the library itself; a constant dynamic structure<br />
would be evident, and the recognition of the library's intellect and knowledge base<br />
amongst it users would be seen.<br />
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT<br />
The author is thankful to the Director, IICT, Hyderabad with permission <strong>for</strong><br />
placing the paper in the conference and is also greatly thankful to Mr.SJD Varaprasad,<br />
Head, IMA.<br />
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23. Rowley, Jennifer. (1999). “What is Knowledge Management?” Library Management<br />
20,no.8:416-419.<br />
24. Davenport, Thomas H., DeLong, D.W., and Beers, M.C. (1998). “Successful<br />
Knowledge Management Projects,” Sloan Management Review 39,no.2:43-57.<br />
25. Duffy,Jan. (1999). Harvesting Experience: Reaping the Benefits of Knowledge.<br />
Prairie Village, KS: ARMA International. Also from her article, “Knowledge<br />
Management: To Be or Not to Be?” In<strong>for</strong>mation Management Journal 34,no. 1:64-67.<br />
26. Bair, Jim. (1999). “Knowledge Management is About Cooperation and Context,”<br />
Gartner Advisory Services <strong>Research</strong> Note (May 14).<br />
27. Galagan, P. (1997). “Smart Companies (Knowledge Management),” Training and<br />
Development 51,no.12: 20-25.<br />
28. On September 24-25, 1999, eighty academic library leaders met during a two-day<br />
Strategic Issues Forum of Academic Library Directors held in Keystone, Colorado,<br />
organized jointly by the Association of <strong>Research</strong> Libraries and OCLC. Three basic<br />
principles were declared as the expanded vision <strong>for</strong> libraries in the digital knowledge<br />
age of the 21sr century. The three principles are called the Keystone Principles.<br />
29. Looney, Michael and Lyman, Peter. (2000). “Portals in Higher Education: What are<br />
They, and What is Their Potential?” EDUCAUSE Review 354:30. Available online<br />
from http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm00/article004/ ooney.pdf<br />
30. Lawrence, S. and Giles, C.L. (1999). “Accessibility of In<strong>for</strong>mation on the Web,”<br />
Nature 400:107-109.<br />
31. Chen, Hsinchun. (2001). Knowledge Management Systems: A Text Mining<br />
Perspective. Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona. p.18.<br />
32. Cohen, Suzanne and others, “Personalized Electronic Services in the Cornell<br />
University Libraries,” D-Lib Magazine 6,no.4:1-2. Available online from<br />
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april00/mistlebauer/04mistlebauer.html<br />
21
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN DIGITAL<br />
INFORMATION SYSTEM AND THE ROLE OF LIBRARY<br />
AND INFORMATION CENTRES WITH SPECIAL<br />
REFERENCE TO INDIA<br />
Subarna K. Das *<br />
Knowledge management is emerging as a key concern of organizations, particularly those<br />
who have already redesigned their business processes and embedded a total quality approach into<br />
their practices. Knowledge management may mean management of knowledge, both explicit and tacit<br />
knowledge. Knowledge Management provides access to experience, knowledge and expertise that<br />
create new capabilities, enable superior per<strong>for</strong>mance, encourage innovation, and enhance customer<br />
value. Present paper attempt to highlights the growth and development of knowledge management in<br />
the changing context of digital environment as well as current and common challenges in knowledge<br />
management and its probable solution as well as role of library and in<strong>for</strong>mation professionals<br />
Keywords: In<strong>for</strong>mation, Knowledge, Knowledge Management, Digital Environment, Common<br />
Challenges, and Knowledge Management Solutions<br />
1. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT: GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT<br />
Knowledge economy is a knowledge-based economy. In the knowledge<br />
economy era, the management refers to effectively identify, acquire, develop, resolve,<br />
use, store and share knowledge, to create an approach to trans<strong>for</strong>ming and sharing of<br />
tacit and explicit knowledge, and to raise the emergency and innovation capability by<br />
utilizing the wisdom of the team. Since knowledge has become the driving <strong>for</strong>ce <strong>for</strong><br />
social development, the attention of the society to in<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge is<br />
rising and people's demands <strong>for</strong> in<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge are increasing step by<br />
step. This has provided a good environment <strong>for</strong> library development. Moreover, as<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge has become an important productive factor <strong>for</strong> the<br />
modern economic system, the society will inevitably require intensified management<br />
of in<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge. How to manage knowledge will become an important<br />
subject facing libraries in the near future. Knowledge management in libraries should<br />
be focused on effective research and development of knowledge, creation of<br />
knowledge bases, exchange and sharing of knowledge between library staffs<br />
(including its users), training of library staff, speeding up explicit processing of the<br />
implicit knowledge and realizing of its sharing. KM has emerged today as a<br />
multidisciplinary subject. As a discipline , it draws from a broad spectrum of<br />
disciplines and technologies such as follows:<br />
1. Cognitive Science, which provides insight into learning and knowing that<br />
ultimately helps in improving the tool and technique <strong>for</strong> gathering and<br />
transferring knowledge.<br />
2. Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems which help in automating the<br />
process of cognition.<br />
3. LIS which has a rich body of research and practice to contribute to KM<br />
4. Organizational Science which explicitly deal with the need to manage<br />
knowledge[3]<br />
* Sr. Lecturer, Dept. of Library and In<strong>for</strong>mation Science, Jadavpur University, Kolkata-700032<br />
E-Mail: skd_ju2002@yahoo.co.in<br />
22
5. Technical Writing, which is concerned with effectives representation and<br />
transfer of knowledge<br />
6. Decision Support system which provides insights to knowledge in the<br />
per<strong>for</strong>mance of cognitive tasks [5]<br />
7. Computer Supported Collaboration work(Groupware) which has immense<br />
potentialities <strong>for</strong> KM<br />
8. Relational and Object Databases, which provide useful ideas to represent and<br />
manage knowledge resources[6]<br />
9. Simulation which is becoming a component of KM <strong>for</strong> learning and creation<br />
of knowledge;[11]<br />
10. Other Technologies, which include hypertext, web technology, full text search<br />
and retrieval, per<strong>for</strong>mance support systems, object-oriented in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
modeling, help desk technology, electronic publishing technology, multimedia<br />
technology, etc. [16]<br />
2. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT: MEANING<br />
Knowledge management is an upcoming field of management, which focuses<br />
on maximizing business per<strong>for</strong>mance by making the most of the synergy between<br />
people, processes and technology. Knowledge management is all about establishing<br />
the link between an organization’ s obvious and implied intellectual property and<br />
positive business outcome. In practice, however, it involves an organization<br />
recognizing and mapping its intellectual assets, creating knowledge <strong>for</strong> competitive<br />
advantage, making large amounts of business in<strong>for</strong>mation available, and allocating the<br />
best practices and technology that facilitates all of the above, including groupware<br />
and intranet [1]. Knowledge management is not easy to define precisely or simply. It<br />
is a complex domain, like management itself. However, there are noteworthy<br />
connections between knowledge management and many popular management<br />
practices and strategies, including best practices, change management, benchmarking<br />
and risk of business process reengineering. Most recent business strategies accept and<br />
recognize that in<strong>for</strong>mation and management, to mention a few. Largely, the business<br />
community also sees knowledge management as an accepted extension knowledge are<br />
its assets, and policies, strategies and tools are needed in order to manage those assets<br />
[2]. The need to manage knowledge cannot be denied, but not many have acted upon<br />
that need. Wherever knowledge management is being implemented, it may stretch<br />
from technology-oriented methods of gaining access to, managing and delivering<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation, to substantial ef<strong>for</strong>ts at changing the organizational culture [11]. Four<br />
steps in getting started in knowledge management are described by Boynton:<br />
1. Making knowledge visible<br />
2. Building knowledge intensity<br />
3. Developing a knowledge culture<br />
4. Building knowledge infrastructure [16]<br />
Secondly<br />
Knowledge Management (KM) caters to the critical issues of organizational<br />
adaptation, survival and competence in face of increasingly discontinuous<br />
environmental change….essentially, it embodies organizational process that seek<br />
synergistic combination of data and in<strong>for</strong>mation processing capacity of in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
processing capacity of in<strong>for</strong>mation technologies, and the creative and innovative<br />
capacity of human beings[7]<br />
23
Thirdly<br />
Knowledge Management promotes an integrated approach to identifying,<br />
capturing, retrieving, sharing, and evaluating an enterprises in<strong>for</strong>mation asset [8].<br />
These in<strong>for</strong>mation assets may include databases, documents, policies, procedures,<br />
as well as the un-captured tacit expertise and experience stored in individual's<br />
heads." [ 9]<br />
Fourthly<br />
KM may simply be defined as doing what is needed to get the most out of<br />
knowledge resources. In general, Km Focuses on organizing and making available<br />
important knowledge. Km is also related to the concept of intellectual capital.<br />
3. CHARACTERISTICS OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN LIBRARIES<br />
The role of knowledge management in libraries will become more and more<br />
important along with the development of knowledge economy. It is a new<br />
management mode, boasts the following superiority and characteristics incomparable<br />
with conventional management: Human Resource Management Is the Core of<br />
Knowledge Management in Libraries .The most important resource in the knowledge<br />
economy system is the talents who grasp knowledge. The talent competition has<br />
become the focus of market competition in the knowledge economy era. In the<br />
knowledge economy era, the libraries will attach importance to vocational training<br />
and lifelong education of library staffs to raise their scientific knowledge level and<br />
ability of acquiring and innovating knowledge.<br />
They also will and fully respect the human value, guide and bring into play<br />
wisdom potentialities of library staffs, take developing knowledge resources in the<br />
brains of library staffs as an important way <strong>for</strong> rising work efficiency. An all-round<br />
improvement of library staff's quality and positioning of the human value will become<br />
important objectives of knowledge management in libraries. The Objective of<br />
Knowledge Management in Libraries is to Promote Knowledge Innovation<br />
.Knowledge innovation is the core of the knowledge economy society. As bases <strong>for</strong><br />
collection, processing, storage and distribution of knowledge and in<strong>for</strong>mation,<br />
libraries represent an indispensable link in the scientific system chain, an important<br />
link in the knowledge innovation. Secondly, libraries take part in scientific research<br />
process directly. The library work is a component of knowledge innovation. Thirdly,<br />
libraries must pay attention to diffusion and conversion of knowledge. They act as<br />
bridges <strong>for</strong> turning the results of knowledge innovation into realistic productive<br />
<strong>for</strong>ces. Knowledge management in libraries is to promote relationship in and between<br />
libraries, between library and user, to strengthen knowledge internetworking and to<br />
quicken knowledge flow. In the knowledge economy era, libraries will carry out<br />
researches on development and application of in<strong>for</strong>mation resources, construction of<br />
virtual libraries, protection of intellectual property rights in the electronic era etc.,<br />
thus founding the base <strong>for</strong> knowledge innovation .In<strong>for</strong>mation Technology Is a Tool<br />
<strong>for</strong> Knowledge Management in Libraries .Knowledge acquisition is the starting point<br />
of knowledge management in libraries. The application of in<strong>for</strong>mation technologies<br />
enlarges the scope of knowledge acquisition, rises knowledge acquisition speed and<br />
reduces knowledge acquisition cost. It is impossible to accomplish such important<br />
tasks by using man's brains only in the modern society in which the knowledge<br />
changes with each passing day. It will be possible to link closely knowledge sources<br />
and knowledge workers by computer networks, thus constructing knowledge<br />
24
networks in libraries based on realization of single-point in<strong>for</strong>matisation .The<br />
knowledge acquired must be accumulated and converged into knowledge warehouses<br />
of libraries. The priority of in<strong>for</strong>mation technologies in the field of knowledge storage<br />
not only finds expression in quantity, but also in retrieval, sorting and security of the<br />
knowledge. In<strong>for</strong>mation technology is also indispensable in the application and<br />
exchange of knowledge and other fields. It functions as a source and tool <strong>for</strong><br />
knowledge innovation.<br />
4. TOOLS FOR KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT<br />
Hoffman describes the following technologies , which are being used <strong>for</strong> the<br />
knowledge management systems. – Intranet/Extranet<br />
- Groupware<br />
- Electronic Document Management<br />
- In<strong>for</strong>mation Retrieval Tools<br />
- Workflow Management System<br />
- Data Analysis<br />
- Data Warehousing<br />
- Agent Technologies<br />
- Helpdesk Technologies<br />
- Machine Learning Computer-based training<br />
- Geographic In<strong>for</strong>mation systems<br />
- Meta data/Meta-in<strong>for</strong>mation/Profile in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
- Ontology<br />
5. WHY KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IS NEEDED IN DIGITAL<br />
ENVIRONMENT<br />
• Service areas are increasingly competitive and the rate of innovation is rising.<br />
• Reductions in staffing create a need to replace in<strong>for</strong>mal knowledge with<br />
<strong>for</strong>mal methods.<br />
• Competitive pressures reduce the size of the work <strong>for</strong>ce that holds valuable<br />
business knowledge.<br />
• Early retirements and increasing mobility of the work <strong>for</strong>ce lead to loss of<br />
knowledge.<br />
• Changes in strategic direction may result in the loss of knowledge in a specific<br />
area.(Ms. Macintosh’s observations,2004)<br />
• Most of our work is in<strong>for</strong>mation based.<br />
• Organizations compete on the basis of knowledge.<br />
• Products and services are increasingly complex endowing them with a<br />
significant in<strong>for</strong>mation component<br />
• The amount of time available to experience and acquire knowledge has<br />
diminished.<br />
• Competitive marketplace;<br />
• Accelerating rate of innovations that need to be assimilated at an even faster<br />
rate<br />
25
6. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT: COMMON AND CHALLENGES<br />
Most of the challenges in knowledge management primarily stem from the<br />
types of knowledge reuse situations and purposes. Knowledge workers may produce<br />
knowledge that they themselves reuse while working. However, each knowledge reuse<br />
situation is unique in terms of requirements and context. Whenever these<br />
differences between the knowledge re-use situations are ignored, the organization<br />
faces various challenges in implementing its knowledge management practices. Some<br />
of the common challenges resulting due to this and other factors are listed below.<br />
1. Data Accuracy: Valuable raw data generated by a particular group within an<br />
organization may need to be validated be<strong>for</strong>e being trans<strong>for</strong>med into normalized or<br />
consistent content.<br />
2. Data Interpretation: In<strong>for</strong>mation derived by one group may need to be mapped to<br />
a standard context in order to be meaningful to someone else in the organization.<br />
3. Data Relevancy: The quality and value of knowledge depend on relevance.<br />
Knowledge that lacks relevance simply adds complexity, cost, and risk to an<br />
organization without any compensating benefits. If the data does not support or truly<br />
answer the question being asked by the user, it requires the appropriate meta-data<br />
(data about data) to be held in the knowledge management solution.<br />
4. Ability of the Data to Support/Deny Hypotheses: The organization could cleanse<br />
the system of very old files, thus diluting its own knowledge management initiative.<br />
Alternatively, it could set up another team to cleanse the database of redundant files,<br />
thus increasing its costs substantially. Apart from these, the real challenge <strong>for</strong> an<br />
organization could be to monitor various departments and ensure that they take<br />
responsibility <strong>for</strong> keeping their repositories clean of redundant files.<br />
5. Legitimacy: In the print-only world, there has been a complex but well-defined<br />
system of content validation and description that involves librarians, referees,<br />
reviewers and publishers. After going through the various defined processes, its<br />
selection gave that material a legitimacy that students and scholars came to depend<br />
upon. Furthermore, technological advances and collaborative ef<strong>for</strong>ts have allowed the<br />
costs of this process to be reduced through shared electronic cataloging (e.g. OCLC)<br />
and through the purchase or licensing of abstracting and indexing electronic<br />
databases. Librarians recognized ages ago that the only scalable and af<strong>for</strong>dable<br />
approach to such processes was to take advantage of leveraged and shared resources.<br />
6. Electronic In<strong>for</strong>mation Resources: The rise of electronic in<strong>for</strong>mation resources<br />
freely accessible through the Internet has disrupted this relatively efficient system in a<br />
number of ways. There is no clear and defined role <strong>for</strong> libraries with regard to the<br />
selection, preservation and provision of access in regard to the digital resources<br />
accessible through the net. Additionally, students and faculty have a need to learn<br />
how to evaluate these new in<strong>for</strong>mation resources, and it is far more difficult to do so<br />
on the Web than it has been in a traditional library. With a traditional library, the very<br />
fact that a book or a journal was held by a library represented a conscious set of<br />
decisions about the validity of the in<strong>for</strong>mation, and implied a filtering process that<br />
suggested a reasonable level of legitimacy. This is not true when one surfs the Web.<br />
26
7. Lack Of Scalability: Another problem is that of scale, as some libraries, academic<br />
departments, and even individual scholars are creating their own collections of Web<br />
sites, selecting and describing network resources they find useful and credible. In<br />
some cases these resources are even added to centralized databases, but the<br />
combination of the growth of the web, and the lack of scalability of these individual,<br />
highly labour intensive approaches do not make such ef<strong>for</strong>ts a viable or af<strong>for</strong>dable<br />
means of addressing this important challenge. There is some hope on the horizon in<br />
dealing with some of these issues, as there are some newly emerging, shared (and<br />
hence leveraged) cataloging resources such as OCLC's Cooperative Online Resource<br />
Catalogue (CORC) project, and the subject gateways being established by the<br />
ROADS project in the UK.<br />
8. Reality: Currently, scholars trying to thoroughly research an area have to go to a<br />
library to do the traditional search process and then do an electronic search of the web<br />
and other electronic resources. This also implies that these people doing this searching<br />
have the ability to discern the quality, authenticity and validity of the in<strong>for</strong>mation that<br />
they find on the web. Of greatest concern, is that a student might go just to the Web,<br />
either assuming that the in<strong>for</strong>mation available there is complete and accurate, or<br />
assuming that the Web alone provides an adequate search. There is plenty of reason to<br />
believe that students today and in the future will fall into this trap, because their<br />
preferred method of working is to do everything online. While everything possible<br />
should be done to educate students and others that each of these two different<br />
approaches has its own respective merits, it is unrealistic to think that such<br />
educational ef<strong>for</strong>ts will be successful with the vast majority of students who have<br />
grown up with the Web.<br />
9. Search Engines: Another problem with the Web today is the nature of the various<br />
search engines such as Yahoo! and AltaVista. While such services offer far wider<br />
coverage than any traditional cataloging approach can possibly match, they do so with<br />
far less quality, filtering and a very different, often less powerful, level of description.<br />
A search using one of these engines may yield half million or more hits. These search<br />
engines are also tainted by a bias in the selection process rooted in their commercial<br />
advertising relationships, rather than solely on the search parameters [12]<br />
10. Evaluation: There is no clear and defined role <strong>for</strong> libraries with regard to the<br />
selection, preservation and provision of access in regards to the digital resources<br />
accessible through the net [13]. Besides, Academic in<strong>for</strong>mation seekers should have a<br />
need to learn how to evaluate these new in<strong>for</strong>mation resources, and it is far more<br />
difficult to do so on the web than it has been in a traditional library.<br />
11. Use Of In<strong>for</strong>mation: Most of the users do not use or know how to use their<br />
advanced features and the more sophisticated search algorithms embedded in these<br />
highly used applications[14]. Consequently, they search virtually the entire web.<br />
12. Choice Of Online: A student might go just to the web, either assuming that the<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation available there is complete and accurate, or assuming that the web alone<br />
provides an adequate search. There is a plenty of reason to believe that users today<br />
and in the future will fall into trap, because they preferred method is everything they<br />
want to do through online[15].<br />
27
7. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SOLUTION IN DIGITAL<br />
INFORMATION SYSTEM<br />
• People Aspects: Training development, recruitment motivation, retention,<br />
organization, job design, cultural change and encouraging thinking and<br />
participation<br />
• Process Aspects: Process innovation, re-engineering both <strong>for</strong> radical and<br />
continuous improvement<br />
• Technology Aspects: In<strong>for</strong>mation and decision support systems, knowledgebased<br />
systems and data mining systems.<br />
• Knowledge Management In An Academic Setting: It must encompass the<br />
community of scholars in a given discipline and must be able to integrate<br />
publications, data sets, tools <strong>for</strong> manipulating such data, connections to<br />
databases of pictures and images and much more [3]<br />
• Systematic Approaches To Knowledge Management: It retains the<br />
traditional faith in rational analysis of the knowledge problem. The problem<br />
can be solved, but new thinking many kinds is required some basic<br />
assumptions:<br />
a) A resource cannot be managed unless it is modeled, and many aspects of<br />
the organization’s knowledge can be modeled as an explicit resource.<br />
b) Solutions can be found in a variety of disciplines and technologies and<br />
traditional methods of analysis can be used to re-examine the nature of<br />
knowledge work and to solve the knowledge problem [10]<br />
c) Cultural issues are important, but they too must be evaluated<br />
systematically. Employees may not have to be “Changed” but policies and<br />
work practices must certainly be changed and technology can be applied<br />
successfully to business knowledge problems themselves.<br />
d) Knowledge management has an important management component, but it<br />
is not an activity or discipline that belongs exclusively to managers. [16]<br />
8. CONCLUSION<br />
Knowledge has become important productive factor <strong>for</strong> the modern digital<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation system. The society Will inevitably require intensified management of<br />
knowledge .How to manage knowledge will become an important subject facing<br />
libraries in near future. Knowledge Management in Libraries should be focused on<br />
effective research and development of knowledge, creation of knowledge bases,<br />
exchange and sharing of knowledge between library staffs including its users, training<br />
of library staff, speeding up explicit processing of the implicit knowledge and<br />
realizing of its sharing. Economic environment and in<strong>for</strong>mation environment is<br />
changing quickly today. Since Knowledge management has become a powerful tool<br />
<strong>for</strong> promoting innovation and realizing reengineering the various walks of life, it<br />
occupies very outstanding position in the creation of the knowledge innovation<br />
systems of a country. Hence it is very essential to focus on Knowledge Management<br />
systems in Libraries and in<strong>for</strong>mation centres by which the timely in<strong>for</strong>mation service<br />
can be provided to the online user society.<br />
28
REFERENCE<br />
1. Y, Malhotra. Knowledge Management in Inquiring Organizations. Proceedings of the<br />
Americas Conference in In<strong>for</strong>mation Systems, 293-295.,1997<br />
2. Y, Malhotra, . Role of Social Influence, Self Determination and Quality of Use in<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation Technology Acceptance and Utilization: A Theoretical Framework and<br />
Empirical Field Study. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Katz Graduate School of Business,<br />
University of Pittsburgh.,1998<br />
3. Y, Malhotra, . “Knowledge Management and New Organization Forms: A<br />
Framework <strong>for</strong> Business Model Innovation”. In<strong>for</strong>mation Resources Management<br />
Journal, Vol 13,No.1, 2000<br />
4. Y, Malhotra (Ed.) Knowledge Management and Virtual Organizations. Hershey: PA,<br />
Idea Group Publishing, 2000<br />
5. Y, Malhotra. “Expert Systems <strong>for</strong> Knowledge Management: Crossing the Chasm<br />
Between In<strong>for</strong>mation Processing and Sense Making”. Expert Systems With<br />
Applications, Vol 20, No.1, 2001<br />
6. Y, Malhotra, (Ed.). Knowledge Management and Business Model Innovation.<br />
Hershey: PA, Idea Group Publishing, 2001<br />
7. Y, Malhotra. Is Knowledge Management Really an Oxymoron? Unraveling the Role<br />
of Organizational Controls in Knowledge Management. In White, D. (Ed.),<br />
Knowledge Mapping and Management. Hershey, PA Idea Group Publishing, 1-<br />
13,2002<br />
8. Y, Malhotra. In<strong>for</strong>mation Ecology and Knowledge Management: Toward Knowledge<br />
Ecology <strong>for</strong> Hyper turbulent Organizational Environments. In Kiel, D.L. (Ed.),<br />
UNESCO Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS). Paris, France: EOLSS<br />
Publishers, 2006<br />
9. L, Prusak, L. “Where Did Knowledge Management Come From?”. IBM Systems<br />
Journal,Vol 4 ,2001<br />
10. Oracle Magazine. “Knowledge Management in the In<strong>for</strong>mation Age.” May, 1998<br />
11. Sreekumar,M.G and others(Eds).Digital Libraries In Knowledge Management. New<br />
Delhi. ESS ESS Publishers. 2006<br />
12. www.media-access.com/whatishtml<br />
13. www.aiai.ed.ac.uk<br />
14. www.sveiby.com.au<br />
15. www.computerworldcom<br />
16. http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla66/papers/057-110e.htm<br />
17. NACLIN 2003 [Proceedings]<br />
29
Knowledge and In<strong>for</strong>mation Management in<br />
Libraries: A new challenge <strong>for</strong> the library and<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation professionals in the digital environment<br />
N.Subramanian *<br />
Abstract<br />
Development of In<strong>for</strong>mation Technology (IT) and its applications in Library and In<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
Centers, the concept of document management has been changed to in<strong>for</strong>mation management and<br />
again the entire scenario of in<strong>for</strong>mation management has started its change to Knowledge<br />
Management (KM). This paper mainly focuses on the concept of Knowledge Management and the role<br />
of library and in<strong>for</strong>mation professionals in managing the knowledge and in<strong>for</strong>mation in the digital<br />
environment. It also highlights the importance of library and in<strong>for</strong>mation professionals in the<br />
organizations such as knowledge creation, acquisition, preservation and sharing knowledge and<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation. This paper also describes the development and use of In<strong>for</strong>mation and Communication<br />
Technologies (ICT) in the library and in<strong>for</strong>mation centers.<br />
Keywords: Knowledge Management; ICT; In<strong>for</strong>mation Management; Digital Library;<br />
Library and In<strong>for</strong>mation professionals<br />
1. INTRODUCTION<br />
This is the era of knowledge and in<strong>for</strong>mation explosion. The unprecedented<br />
growth of knowledge and in<strong>for</strong>mation has impacted all organizations including the<br />
libraries. The conventional functions of libraries are collect, process, disseminate,<br />
store and retrieve in<strong>for</strong>mation to provide better services to the end users. In the digital<br />
environment, the role of libraries is changing to provide the competitive advantage <strong>for</strong><br />
its users. The success of library and in<strong>for</strong>mation centre depends upon their ability to<br />
utilize in<strong>for</strong>mation knowledge of its staff to serve the user community. The ICT has<br />
played a significant role in this dynamics which has not only made access across the<br />
globe easier, but has facilitated integration of thought processes, synergy in working<br />
methods and places, team learning and in enhancing organizational transparency.<br />
With the development of IT and its applications in libraries, the concept of document<br />
management has been changed to in<strong>for</strong>mation management and again, the entire<br />
scenario of in<strong>for</strong>mation management has started its change to knowledge<br />
management.<br />
2. KNOWLEDGE<br />
Knowledge is an intellectual capital when people out of creation, add value to<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation. It is generated.<br />
Knowledge is classified and modified. It may be indexing. It is shared.<br />
Sharing of knowledge is a core element of knowledge management. IT has provided<br />
with number of possible solutions <strong>for</strong> sharing via e-mail, intranet etc.<br />
Davanport (1998) defined knowledge as follows: Knowledge is fluid framed<br />
experiences, values, contextual in<strong>for</strong>mation as expert insights that provides a<br />
framework <strong>for</strong> evaluation and incorporating new experiences of in<strong>for</strong>mation.<br />
* University Librarian, Periyar University, Salem-636 011, Tamil Nadu<br />
Email: nsmaniyan@rediffmail.com<br />
30
Daniel Bell defines knowledge as a set of organized statements of facts or<br />
ideas, presenting a reasoned judgment or an experimental result, which is transmitted<br />
to others through some communication medium in some systematic <strong>for</strong>m.<br />
3. INFORMATION<br />
Marc Porat states that “In<strong>for</strong>mation is data that has been organized and<br />
communicated”.<br />
Stehen Abram sees the process <strong>for</strong> knowledge creation and use as a continuum<br />
where data trans<strong>for</strong>ms into in<strong>for</strong>mation, in<strong>for</strong>mation trans<strong>for</strong>ms into knowledge and<br />
knowledge drives and undergoing behaviour and decision making.<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation is visible, independent from action and decision, different in<br />
<strong>for</strong>mat after processing, physical product, independent from existing environment,<br />
easily transferable and duplicate.<br />
Knowledge is invisible, closely related to action and decision, different in<br />
thought after processing, spiritual product, identified with existing environment,<br />
transferable through learning and not duplicate.<br />
4. TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE<br />
Knowledge is classified into three types.<br />
1. Explicit knowledge<br />
2. Tacit knowledge<br />
3. Cultural knowledge<br />
Explicit knowledge<br />
It is <strong>for</strong>mal and easy to communicate to others. It is the knowledge of<br />
rationality. That is, policies, rules, specifications and <strong>for</strong>mulae. It is also known as<br />
declarative knowledge.<br />
Tacit knowledge<br />
It is complex <strong>for</strong>m of knowledge. It has two dimensions namely technical and<br />
cognitive. This is personal knowledge, which is in human mind and difficult to<br />
<strong>for</strong>malize and also difficult to communicate.<br />
Cultural knowledge<br />
B.B.Chand describes the cultural knowledge as knowledge which includes<br />
assumptions and beliefs. It is used to understand, describe and explain the reality as<br />
well as conventions. It is also useful to <strong>for</strong>m the framework among organizational<br />
members, recognize the new in<strong>for</strong>mation and evaluate alternative interpretations and<br />
actions.<br />
5. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT<br />
Knowledge management is generally understood to mean the sharing of<br />
knowledge inside or outside of an organization. Knowledge sharing has been greatly<br />
facilitated by modern computer based technology. There is no agreed definition of<br />
Knowledge Management, even among practitioners. The term is used loosely to refer<br />
31
to a broad collection of organizational practices and approaches related to generating,<br />
capturing, and disseminating know-how and other content relevant to the<br />
organization’s business. Knowledge is no just an explicit tangible “thing”, like<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation, but in<strong>for</strong>mation combined with experience, context, interpretation and<br />
reflection. Knowledge involves the full person, integrating the elements of both<br />
thinking and feeling.<br />
Knowledge management is the process of creating, capturing and using<br />
knowledge to enhance organizational per<strong>for</strong>mance. It is most frequently associated<br />
with two types of activities.<br />
• to document and appropriate individual’s knowledge.<br />
• to disseminate it through such venues as a company vide database.<br />
• Knowledge management is a<br />
• method of gathering in<strong>for</strong>mation and making it available to others<br />
• process of systematically and actively managing and leveraging the stores<br />
of knowledge in an organization<br />
• process of trans<strong>for</strong>ming in<strong>for</strong>mation and intellectual assets into enduring<br />
values<br />
• a system or framework <strong>for</strong> managing the organizational processes that<br />
create, store and distribute knowledge as defined by its collective data.<br />
Jennifer Rowlay stated, “Knowledge management is concerned with the<br />
exploitation of an organization…. Organizations that succeed in knowledge<br />
management are likely to view knowledge as an asset and to develop organizational<br />
norms and values, which support the creation and sharing knowledge”.<br />
Galagan proposed the following knowledge management processes.<br />
• Generating new knowledge<br />
• Accessing knowledge from external sources<br />
• Representing knowledge in documents, databases and so on<br />
• embedding knowledge in processes, products or services<br />
• transferring existing knowledge<br />
• using accessible knowledge indecision making<br />
• facilitating knowledge through culture and incentives<br />
• measuring the value of knowledge assets and the impact of knowledge<br />
management.<br />
Knowledge management in library and in<strong>for</strong>mation centers<br />
Business world is changing in the new knowledge economy and in the digital<br />
age, libraries of all types are undergoing drastic changes also. The new role of<br />
libraries in the 21 st century needs to be as a learning and knowledge center <strong>for</strong> their<br />
users. As a learning organization, libraries should provide a strong leadership in<br />
knowledge management. Unlike the business organization, the learning organization<br />
should sharing of knowledge with others outside. Libraries should improve their<br />
knowledge management in all of the key areas of library services.<br />
The exponential growth in human knowledge in a variety of <strong>for</strong>mats, libraries<br />
need to develop their resources, access and sharing strategies from printed to<br />
electronic and digital resources. Restricted by limited funding, technology, staff and<br />
32
space, libraries must carefully analyze the needs of their users and seek to develop<br />
cooperative acquisition plans to meet the needs of users.<br />
Libraries should be developed and maintained an integrated online public<br />
access catalogue (OPAC) with both internal and external resources as well as printed<br />
and other <strong>for</strong>mats of knowledge. Useful websites and knowledge sources should be<br />
regularly searched and selected from the internet and included in OPACs. A system<br />
<strong>for</strong> the reviewing and updating of these resources should be per<strong>for</strong>med.<br />
Going beyond explicit knowledge, libraries should also develop to capture all<br />
that tacit knowledge that is of importance to their users, their organizations, and to the<br />
internal operations of libraries. The website of each library should serve as a “portal”<br />
<strong>for</strong> all sources of relevant knowledge and in<strong>for</strong>mation whether explicit or tacit,<br />
whether on site or remote and in all <strong>for</strong>mats.<br />
In the current digital and networked knowledge age, the size of in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
sources on the web is growing exponentially. No one really knows exactly how many<br />
web pages are on the internet, because new web pages are added every second.<br />
Universities and research organizations are knowledge reservoirs. These<br />
highly valued intellectual assets, regardless of whether they are explicit or tacit,<br />
should be inventoried, archived, indexed, frequently updated and made accessible in<br />
digital <strong>for</strong>m, Libraries should use the new approach to capture web in<strong>for</strong>mation by<br />
cooperative ef<strong>for</strong>ts such as Dublin core metadata and the cooperative online resources<br />
catalogue (CORC).<br />
Other new methods such as data mining, text mining, content management,<br />
search engines, spidering programs, natural language searching, linguistic analysis,<br />
semantic networks, knowledge extraction, concept of yellow pages, and such<br />
technologies in in<strong>for</strong>mation visualization as two dimensional or three dimensional<br />
knowledge mapping etc., have been a part of recent developments in knowledge<br />
management systems.<br />
6. RESOURCES SHARING AND NETWORKING<br />
Traditionally, libraries have a long practice of resource sharing and<br />
networking. These have been greatly expanded by the rapid development of<br />
computer, telecommunication networking and digital technologies.<br />
The sources of the cooperative work and resources sharing of OCLC (Online<br />
Computer Library Center) and Ohio LINK (Ohio Library and In<strong>for</strong>mation Network)<br />
in US, is the best examples in resource sharing and networking with the result of the<br />
full cooperation and participation of all member libraries without selfishness. Large<br />
and major libraries must take the lead in such an Endeavour.<br />
7. CHARACTERISTICS OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN LIBRARIES<br />
The role of KM in Libraries will become more and more important along with<br />
the development of knowledge economy. It is a new management mode. The<br />
following superiority and characteristics are incomparable with conventional<br />
management.<br />
1. In<strong>for</strong>mation technology is a tool <strong>for</strong> KM<br />
2. Human resource management in KM<br />
3. User Services in KM<br />
33
In<strong>for</strong>mation technology is a tool <strong>for</strong> KM<br />
To facilitate the implementation of knowledge management, a well-defined<br />
and operational knowledge management system should be in place. Latest<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation technology should be used in the libraries. In this regard, the library<br />
director / librarian should consider himself as the chief knowledge officer of the entire<br />
organization and should work together with the chief in<strong>for</strong>mation officer, heads of the<br />
planning department, the computer and in<strong>for</strong>mation technology center, the human<br />
resource management department, the finance department etc., to design and develop<br />
such a system. Such knowledge management system should be built on the existing<br />
computer and in<strong>for</strong>mation technology infrastructure including upgraded intranet,<br />
extranet, internet and available software programs to facilitate the capture, analysis,<br />
organization, storage and sharing of internal and external in<strong>for</strong>mation resources <strong>for</strong><br />
effective knowledge exchange among users, resource persons (faculty, researchers,<br />
subject experts etc.,), publishers, government agencies, business and industries and<br />
other organizations via multiple channels.<br />
In recent years, many of the newly developed in<strong>for</strong>mation technology <strong>for</strong><br />
databases and in<strong>for</strong>mation / document management can be utilized in knowledge<br />
management such as data warehousing, data mining, text mining etc.,<br />
Human resource management in KM<br />
The most important resource in the knowledge economy system is the talents<br />
who grasp knowledge. The talent competition has become the focus of market<br />
competition in the knowledge economy era. In the knowledge economy era, the<br />
libraries will attach importance to vocational training and lifelong education of library<br />
staff to raise their scientific knowledge level and ability of acquiring and innovative<br />
knowledge. They also will respect the human value, guide and bring into play wisdom<br />
potentialities of library staffs. It is an important way <strong>for</strong> raising work efficiency of<br />
library staff. An all round improvement of library staff’s quality and positioning of the<br />
human value will become important objectives of knowledge management in Library<br />
and In<strong>for</strong>mation centers. The library staff members of Universities and research<br />
committees should be inventoried, indexed regularly and be made searchable and<br />
accessible through electronic databases created and maintained by libraries. The<br />
expertise should be appreciated with appropriate rewards and incentives. As a<br />
learning organization, libraries should allocate annual funding to provide continuing<br />
education and staff training to all staff members. Knowledge must be renewed and<br />
expanded to prevent it from becoming stagnant.<br />
Libraries should also encourage the transfer of knowledge and experience<br />
from experienced staff to new staff members. A mentoring system should be in place<br />
to help new comers to learn from experienced library staff. In<strong>for</strong>mal seminars,<br />
discussion sessions <strong>for</strong> staff can interact and exchange “lessons learned” “best<br />
practices” and other experiences should be scheduled at regular intervals and at<br />
convenient times sit and chat rooms can be created through intranet libraries should<br />
be attending to favorable working conditions and environment, which will contribute<br />
to better staff retention.<br />
User services in KM<br />
The utmost goal of knowledge management is to provide users with a variety<br />
of quality services in order to improve the communication, use and creation of<br />
knowledge. In<strong>for</strong>mation about each user can be obtained by analyzing the records of<br />
34
user registration, surveys, circulation and inter library loan, frequently asked reference<br />
questions and the use of e-journals and digital resources etc., User satisfaction and<br />
needs should be collected through periodical user’s surveys. The findings should be<br />
used <strong>for</strong> the planning and redesign of the existing library services.<br />
Some of the manual services of the library such as “new publication alert” and<br />
“dissemination of in<strong>for</strong>mation” should be done automatically by employing the “push<br />
technology” with great efficiency and convenience. Each library user can also set up<br />
his virtual “my library / portal” <strong>for</strong> new in<strong>for</strong>mation / resources provided by the<br />
library.<br />
8. TECHNOLOGIES FOR KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT<br />
Library and in<strong>for</strong>mation centres should be developed / modified based on the<br />
perfect environment <strong>for</strong> new media applications. Due to impact of globalization,<br />
economic competition and revolution of ICT, the libraries are under going tremendous<br />
change its environment. ICT tools and techniques, knowledge management systems,<br />
internet, web resources, digital libraries have made a significant change in the existing<br />
library systems and services. It is a major challenge <strong>for</strong> the library professionals.<br />
Knowledge acquisition is the starting point of knowledge management in<br />
Libraries. The application of IT, enlarges the scope of knowledge acquisition, rises<br />
knowledge acquition, speed and reduces knowledge acquisition cost. It is impossible<br />
to accomplish such important tasks by using man’s brain only in the modern society<br />
in which the knowledge changes with each passing day. It will be possible to link<br />
closely knowledge sources and knowledge workers by computer networks, thus<br />
constructing knowledge networks in libraries based on realization of single point<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mationalization.<br />
Data wise technologies developed the following list of technologies <strong>for</strong> the<br />
knowledge management.<br />
• Intranet within an organization<br />
• Document management systems<br />
• In<strong>for</strong>mation retrieval systems<br />
• Relational and object databases<br />
• Electronic publishing<br />
• Groupware and work flow systems<br />
• Push technologies<br />
• Help desk applications<br />
• Brain storming applications<br />
• Data warehousing and data mining<br />
9. CONCLUSION<br />
KM is an emerging field, much tooted or hyped since late 1990s. Due to the<br />
complicated nature of knowledge and its management, it is often difficult to estimate<br />
or demonstrate the value of the Knowledge Management. In the business world,<br />
knowledge management has been regarded as strategically important <strong>for</strong><br />
organizations to gain a competitive advantage over their competitions, to add value<br />
their products, to win greater satisfaction from their customers.<br />
35
In the library world, there is a lesson to be learned from the business world.<br />
For any library to succeed in implementing knowledge management will require a<br />
strong leadership and vision from the top administration. In<strong>for</strong>mation Technology and<br />
systems can provide effective support in implementing knowledge management.<br />
Libraries should work together with In<strong>for</strong>mation Technology Professionals and others<br />
to develop the appropriate knowledge management systems. Libraries, with limited<br />
budget and human resources, should utilize the current management structure and<br />
technology to implement KM, either bottom-up or top-down. With an ef<strong>for</strong>t, KM will<br />
help to increase libraries operational efficiency and later to the ever increasing needs<br />
of our clientele.<br />
REFERENCES<br />
1. Denning, S.(2001).The Strategy of Knowledge. http://www.stevedenning.com/<br />
stategy_knowledge-sharing.html<br />
2. Kantor, R.M.(2001).Evolve!: Succeeding in the Digital culture of tomorrow, New<br />
Haven, Harvard Business school press.<br />
3. Peacock, J and Middleton, M (1999). Mixed mode education: Implication <strong>for</strong> library<br />
user services. New Library World. 100(1146) 11-19pp<br />
4. Stratigos, A.(2001). Knowledge management meets future in<strong>for</strong>mation users. Online,<br />
Jan2001<br />
5. Dearstyne, B.W.(2000). Greeting and shaping the future: In<strong>for</strong>mation professionals as<br />
strategists and leaders. In<strong>for</strong>mation Outlook. Aug 2000<br />
6. Wag Yunbua(1999). Knowledge Economy and the development of the Library.<br />
Library work and <strong>Research</strong>.1999 (6) 17-19pp.<br />
7. Shanhong, Tang(2000). Knowledge Management in Libraries in the 21 st Century. In<br />
the 66 th IFLA Council and General Conference, held at Jerusalem, Israel 13-18 Aug<br />
2000.<br />
36
Role of library and library professionals in<br />
present knowledge environment in the field of<br />
science and technology<br />
Y. S. Parihar* and J. K. Pattnaik *<br />
Abstract<br />
This paper discusses some of the changes that have taken place in production, growth and<br />
distribution of knowledge sources in the field of science and technology. It describes how the<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation needs, in<strong>for</strong>mation seeking behavior and expectations of the users have changed due to<br />
the change in the media and access tools <strong>for</strong> retrieving the knowledge sources. It also discusses the<br />
role of the library and library professionals in this changing knowledge environment.<br />
Keywords: Knowledge environment, Knowledge sources, knowledge users, In<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
seeking behavior, In<strong>for</strong>mation need, Access tools, Library professionals<br />
1. INTRODUCTION<br />
Knowledge is defined in Ox<strong>for</strong>d English Dictionary as facts, in<strong>for</strong>mation, and<br />
skill acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical<br />
understanding of a subject. Knowledge acquisition involves complex cognitive<br />
process: perception, learning, communication, association, and reasoning. Knowledge<br />
is basically of tree type 1. Tacit knowledge that people carry in their mind, and is , -<br />
there<strong>for</strong>e, difficult to access 2. Descriptive knowledge that is the know-how or<br />
procedural knowledge of how, and especially how best, to per<strong>for</strong>m some task 3.<br />
Explicit knowledge that has been or can be articulated, codified, and stored in certain<br />
media. Explicit knowledge is externalized.<br />
Knowledge in science and technology has been created by the scientists by<br />
attempting to gain knowledge through the scientific methods such as assumption,<br />
hypothesis and theory. This knowledge has been stored as intellectual properties in<br />
different in<strong>for</strong>mation sources such as manuscripts, journals, patents standards, and<br />
reports. Though many organizations are trying to capture the tacit as well as the<br />
descriptive knowledge through the institutional portal, and knowledge bases but in<br />
practice these are still gray areas and do not have bibliographical control. Libraries<br />
and in<strong>for</strong>mation centers have been responsible <strong>for</strong> management of this knowledge<br />
mainly the explicit knowledge which is encrypted in the in<strong>for</strong>mation resources.<br />
Within a generation rapidly evolving computer technology has trans<strong>for</strong>med the nature<br />
of publishing, the nature of libraries and the nature of scientific communication itself.<br />
With the emergence of ‘electronic publishing, relevance of libraries and librarian are<br />
questioned as a key stroke can now bring virtually any publication to the users<br />
desktop and print journals may disappear and evolve into a key component of the<br />
network .<br />
Not only the role of libraries and librarians are questioned, science and<br />
technology publishers may be challenged due to the open access movements in<br />
electronic publishing. The debate over free access to electronic scientific journals and<br />
other knowledge sources is going on globally. People have backed ef<strong>for</strong>ts to put<br />
* Library, Raja Ramanna <strong>Centre</strong> <strong>for</strong> Advanced Technology, Indore-451013<br />
E.mail: ysparihar@cat.ernat.in<br />
37
more science in public domain. Several groups have responded with free web<br />
journals financed by page charges paid by authors. The UK government has given<br />
biomed central a major boost by agreeing to pay article fee <strong>for</strong> academic researchers<br />
who published in its open access journals, following the researchers to save the usual<br />
fee of $ 500/- per articles [2]. The traditional scientific publishers launched a counter<br />
offensive arguing that the future of scientific communication-as well as their 3 billion<br />
Pounds European publishing industries-is at stake. The European Union (EU) failed<br />
to enact mandatory open access policy <strong>for</strong> self archiving (researchers to make a copy<br />
of each paper freely available online perhaps through their institutes website). Though<br />
EU did not endorsed a mandate to self archiving, it ask <strong>for</strong> more study and debate,<br />
however the commission agrees, <strong>for</strong> now in the 14 th February policy statement that it<br />
acknowledge that data from publicly funded research should be accessible to all by<br />
publishing in public library of science (PLoS) in which authors pay to publish and<br />
access is free [3].<br />
This shows that a drastic change has already occurred and the change will<br />
continue slowly and steadily in knowledge environment in the area of science and<br />
technology. The change in knowledge environment is going to affect many including<br />
science and technology libraries and their services, library and in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
professionals, traditional scientific publishers, the researchers etc. We are concern<br />
about the areas that may affect the library services and library and in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
professionals.<br />
Mainly changes in production, growth and distribution or dissemination of<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation sources have affected library services and role of library and in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
professionals.<br />
2. CHANGES IN KNOWLEDGE SOURCES IN SCIENCE AND<br />
TECHNOLOGY<br />
The major source of knowledge in the field of science and technology are<br />
explicit and are available as different types of in<strong>for</strong>mation sources. Due to change in<br />
electronic publishing most of the knowledge sources are available in the <strong>for</strong>m of e-<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation resources, which is also termed as electronic in<strong>for</strong>mation or on-line<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation resource or on-line resources or e-resources and is defined as a broader<br />
term that encompasses electronic journals and other full-text materials, indexing and<br />
abstracting services, the in<strong>for</strong>mation of in<strong>for</strong>mation aggregators, article delivery<br />
services etc [7].<br />
Changes in types in<strong>for</strong>mation resources<br />
• Books to e-books: Books are gradually shifting to e-books. A few e-book<br />
such as e-books from Springer, Elsevier, Willy etc, SPIE proceedings, AIP<br />
proceedings, IEEE proceedings etc are already prevailing in the field of<br />
science and technology and many more science and technology publishers<br />
are coming up with e-book option.<br />
• Journals to on-line journals: Current issues(of limited rolling years) are<br />
free with print subscription. Access to Elsevier Science Direct, IEEE<br />
journals, Springer journals, Wiley journals is possible through Consortia.<br />
Back Issues(on-line archives) of the journals such PROLA(All APS<br />
journals), AIP journals, IOP(All IOP Journal be<strong>for</strong>e 10 years),OSA<br />
38
journals, Science Direct(Elsevier Physics, Materials Science &<br />
Mathematics back file) are accessible on subscription basis.<br />
• Standards from print to CD: BIS standards, ASTM Standards, ASME<br />
standards, IEC standards etc are available mainly on stand alone or<br />
network version of CD. IEEE standards are accessible on-line through<br />
IEEE E-Library.<br />
• <strong>Research</strong> Reports from print to on-line: <strong>Research</strong> report of CERN, KEK,<br />
DESY and other important research organization are available on-line.<br />
• Patents from print to on-line: Patents are accessible on-line through<br />
INPADOC or the issuing authorities such as US Patent House, IBM Patent<br />
Office etc.<br />
Changes in media of in<strong>for</strong>mation resources<br />
The media has smoothly trans<strong>for</strong>med from print to micro<strong>for</strong>m to<br />
electronic(CDs and On-line). But interesting thing to note is during the<br />
metamorphosis the print part has prevailed with the other <strong>for</strong>ms such as micro<strong>for</strong>ms,<br />
CD and On-line.<br />
Advantages and disadvantage of e-resources<br />
• Advantages of e-resources over print are: i) Remote access from desktop<br />
ii) Simultaneous access by many users iii. Timely access without any time<br />
lag iii) Supports different searching, citation link & reference linking<br />
through DOI facility iv. Integrated v. Saving of storage space vi. Lower<br />
cost compared to print, though the myth of e-journals being cheap except<br />
the old archive is not necessarily true. vii. No damage or loss in transit vii.<br />
No maintenance such as kardex entry, system entry, binding etc.<br />
• Disadvantages of e-resources such as 1.Dependency on technology and<br />
equipments such as computers, networks, current and printer etc. 2.Less<br />
portable compared to print 3. Less aesthetic compared to print 3. Chances<br />
of health hazard because of constant watching at the glaring monitors.<br />
Changes in access tools to retrieve in<strong>for</strong>mation sources<br />
Literature Search is defined as “A systematic and exhaustive search <strong>for</strong><br />
published material on a specific topic” Or “Systematic search, utilizing various<br />
indexes and catalogs, <strong>for</strong> materials on a specific problem or topic, often done with an<br />
aim to be comprehensive” Or A thorough exploration of all in<strong>for</strong>mation published<br />
about a given topic. Retrieval tools have changes from printed library catalogue cards<br />
and printed indexing and abstracting journals to Web-OPAC, search engines and<br />
online databases with lot of value additions such as full-text linking (through DOI and<br />
Crossref), references linking and Citations etc.<br />
Access tools prevailing in the field of science and technology are:<br />
• Indexing and abstracting database: On-line indexing and abstracting<br />
services with full-text linking through DOI or Crossref, prevailing in the<br />
field of science and technology, are:<br />
39
Web-of Science which covers Science Citation Index, Current Contents<br />
and Physics Abstract(INSPEC)<br />
Engineering Village which covers EI-COMPINDEX, INSPEC etc.<br />
Other aggregators (some also act as document delivery services)<br />
J-Gate, Infotriev, INGENTA, EBESCO, PUBMED CENTRAL,<br />
BIOMEDNET, MEDLINE, OVID, JSTOR<br />
• Publishers journal databases<br />
Most of the publishes provide features like full-text linking(through DOI<br />
and Crossref), references linking and citations in their own journals.<br />
Important databases( also known as info-bases or knowledge bases) in the<br />
field of science and technology are SCIRUS(Science Direct<br />
Database(Elsevier), CITATION(AIP & APS and Pub-Med), IOP,<br />
OSA(Optics Infobase), IEEE Electronic Library etc.<br />
• E-print archives<br />
E-Print Archives gives access to preprints from world wide. “ArXiv” of<br />
Los Alamo National Laboratory and “SPIERS” of SLAC & DESY<br />
laboratory are two popular e-print archive in the field of science and<br />
technology.<br />
• Search engines<br />
In the field science and technology “Google Scholar” is one of the best<br />
search engines that provides contextual search facility <strong>for</strong> most of the<br />
publishes scientific in<strong>for</strong>mation with full text link, reference link and<br />
citation.<br />
3. CHANGES IN LIBRARY SERVICES DUE TO THE CHANGES IN<br />
KNOWLEDGE SOURCES IN THE FIELD OF SCIENCE AND<br />
TECHNOLOGY<br />
Science and technology libraries have started providing following services due to the<br />
change in the knowledge environment<br />
• Link to relevant web resource (licensed and free) through library portals<br />
and electronic resources registry databases<br />
• Photocopying to digital photocopying to network printing<br />
• Translation service from manual to automatic<br />
• Citation analysis through Web-of Science<br />
• Library web-services<br />
-Web based interlibrary & photocopy request and digital document<br />
delivery service<br />
- Web based newspaper clipping service<br />
- Web based conference announcement<br />
- Web based CAS<br />
-Web-OPAC etc.<br />
• Digital archives<br />
- Journal articles, research report, thesis, project reports and other<br />
internal publications through the institutional repository<br />
40
• Reference Help Desk to “Ask a librarian on-line”<br />
4. ROLE OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION PROFESSIONALS IN THE<br />
CHANGING KNOWLEDGE ENVIRONMENT<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation policy development<br />
There is range of in<strong>for</strong>mation policy issues <strong>for</strong> which immediate and ongoing<br />
attention is needed. Present professionals may have to give continuing attention and<br />
leadership in in<strong>for</strong>mation policy development.<br />
Professional has to play important role in developing in<strong>for</strong>mation policy <strong>for</strong><br />
the institution. They have to play a role in the contractual, legal and ethical aspect of<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation use. In<strong>for</strong>mation policy should be developed with the help of high level<br />
authority, project heads and other users of institution. Other concern of in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
use such as confidential, open, censorship, piracy should also be kept in mind during<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation policy development.<br />
Function of the science and technology librarians in license agreement as a part of<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation Policy Development<br />
With the change of the media from print to on-line the concept of acquisition<br />
has also changed to licensing. In stead of fixing terms and condition <strong>for</strong> the supply of<br />
the document by the vendor the present professionals may have to negotiate a license<br />
agreement with the vendor or publisher. Cost of accessing electronic in<strong>for</strong>mation and<br />
other terms and conditions related to the purchase of E-in<strong>for</strong>mation needs to be set.<br />
They may consider the following points while negotiating the agreement <strong>for</strong> licensing<br />
the electronic in<strong>for</strong>mation individually <strong>for</strong> their library or combinedly <strong>for</strong> the<br />
consortium:<br />
• Access fees<br />
• Price cap<br />
• Access restrictions<br />
• Unlimited downloading<br />
• Usage statistics and data mining<br />
• Additional titles and acquisition<br />
• Back volumes access<br />
• Historical archive<br />
• Permanent right to access<br />
• Option <strong>for</strong> only on-line<br />
Details about the above guidelines have been discussed separately in another paper on<br />
guidelines <strong>for</strong> licensing e-in<strong>for</strong>mation.<br />
Organization of networked in<strong>for</strong>mation sources<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation professionals may have to act as a shifter to provide semantic<br />
web-resources by creating library website, library portals, digital libraries, e-resources<br />
registry database etc. Professionals has to take initiative in organizing the chaotic<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation available on the Internet. It could be possible by cataloguing using<br />
catalogue codes or metadata standards, classifying using classification standards and<br />
proving subject terms(key words) using subject thesaurus to, the web-resources.<br />
41
Creation of digital contents and institutional repository<br />
Digitization of the internal publication such as e-articles of the scientists,<br />
internal reports, thesis, project report etc may be a part of the regular routine job of<br />
the in<strong>for</strong>mation professionals.<br />
Providing access to the electronic resource<br />
The in<strong>for</strong>mation professionals may have to provide access to the digital<br />
contents through the digital library and library Web-OPAC or they may have to<br />
provide access to the on-line resources by creating on-line resources registry<br />
databases<br />
Electronic publishing<br />
For the internal publications such as newsletters, research report etc, the<br />
librarian who serves as a member of the editorial board may have to play an<br />
important role by offering their resources-technological and human-to provide a site<br />
<strong>for</strong> developing, testing and archiving electronic publications<br />
As a search intermediary<br />
The vast amount of in<strong>for</strong>mation available in a networked environment suggests that<br />
there is a role <strong>for</strong> trained intermediaries who have search skills, abilities to analysis<br />
and evaluating in<strong>for</strong>mation resources and match needs with sources. Large amount of<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation and easier ways to access sometimes posed problem <strong>for</strong> users. This may<br />
develop a chance of not locating the exact in<strong>for</strong>mation. Accuracy and authenticity of<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation may be at question. The role of librarian and in<strong>for</strong>mation professional as<br />
both user-educator and intermediary is most important in this environment.<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation literacy and user orientation on on-line resources and digital library<br />
Education of the users in the science and technology community is an essential<br />
service the in<strong>for</strong>mation professional has to provide in the present in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
environment. They have to provide instructions about in<strong>for</strong>mation resources and assist<br />
the users in acquiring skill in locating and evaluating in<strong>for</strong>mation using variety of<br />
methods and locations <strong>for</strong> teaching (e.g. Training School classes of the scientists,<br />
interactive networks, multimedia presentation and computer instruction)<br />
5. CONCLUSION<br />
Library professionals cannot ignore the changing shape of knowledge environment.<br />
Redefining and reengineering of library and in<strong>for</strong>mation systems <strong>for</strong> the modern era is<br />
the need of the moment. In<strong>for</strong>mational professionals must change and adapt to the<br />
new electronic knowledge environment. Creating web pages to promote library<br />
services and providing automated library management systems are most appropriate<br />
way to this changing knowledge environment. In addition to this proper in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
organization and providing Intranet services according to users and institution needs<br />
and objective and will also be necessary. Professional should act as technology<br />
application leader. They should be a part of in<strong>for</strong>mation system access tools. They<br />
should provide instructions and support to users to cope-up with the changing<br />
knowledge environment, so that optimum use of in<strong>for</strong>mation sources become possible<br />
<strong>for</strong> users. The transition of traditional collection to digital or virtual collections<br />
presented the library professionals with new opportunity to play a new dynamic role<br />
and serve the in<strong>for</strong>mation base society in better way than hitherto, specially in the<br />
field of science and technology which is very sensitive to the changes. A science and<br />
42
technology librarians may have to act as a facilitator, intermediary and end user<br />
trainer. They may have to provide a semantic web by searching, controlling, filtering<br />
and sense making the chaotic in<strong>for</strong>mation resources. This can be achieved by strategic<br />
and operational planning, acquiring new knowledge, skill, ability and doing<br />
partnership with the researchers as well reshaping and strengthening their relationship<br />
with the computer specialists and technologist in their institutions.<br />
REFERENCES<br />
1. Wald M. Mitchell: Creating the future of electronic publishing, Science, 251, 1 st<br />
March 1991, p. 1021-1022<br />
2. Malakoff David, Bachtold Daniel: Who owns, who pays? U.K., U.S. Offer answer <strong>for</strong><br />
journals, Science, 301, 4 th July 2003, p. 29<br />
3. Enserink Martin: European Union steps back from open-access leap, Science, 315,<br />
23 rd February <strong>2007</strong>, p. 1065<br />
4. Satpathy Kishor S.: The in<strong>for</strong>mation professional at crossroads, Library and<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation Services in Astroomy IV, Czech Republic, 2-5 July 2002, p. 379-382<br />
5. Rao Nageswara K., Babu K.H.: Role of librarian in internet and world wide web<br />
environment, In<strong>for</strong>mation Science, 4, 2001, p. 26-34<br />
6. Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org<br />
7. International Coalition of Library Consortium http://www.library.yale.edu/<br />
Consortia/statement.html<br />
8. Follett Lectures Series: Slouching toward the future or creating a new in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
environment by Creth Sheila D http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/papers/follett/<br />
creth/paper.html<br />
43
University Libraries – Metamorphosis to Knowledge<br />
Resource Centers<br />
R.Samyuktha *<br />
Abstract<br />
The emerging ecology of in<strong>for</strong>mation landscape with virtual learning environment is<br />
demanding on the academic library scenario. The University Libraries with their traditional<br />
framework are metamorphosing into hybrid centers with print and electronic <strong>for</strong>ms co-existing.<br />
Furthermore, their roles have changed in becoming “Knowledge Resource Centers” to keep pace<br />
with innovations in technology and realize the change in being customer driven without being customer<br />
led. The paper discusses the changes in University Library infrastructure, resources, services and the<br />
library professionals in the new knowledge environment.<br />
1. INTRODUCTION<br />
The traditional University Libraries being repositories of precious in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
resources are driven <strong>for</strong>ward to change their garb in terms of all their dimensions of<br />
infrastructure to services to evolve as Knowledge Resource Centers.<br />
Expansion of internet has created the misconception that libraries are no<br />
longer needed as much of the content required is available on the web. Users are<br />
indeed able to surf across digital resources of multiple or varied collections. They<br />
greatly rely on a combination of enhanced resources, user friendly interfaces and<br />
improved search tools (University Library Services, 2000). As a result two key<br />
measures, namely the statistics of visits and circulation in a traditional library has<br />
dwindled down (Bertrot et al 2004).<br />
The shift in the ecology of in<strong>for</strong>mation needs and in<strong>for</strong>mation handling and<br />
management with users in distributed environments are posing tremendous impact on<br />
the role of services rendered by University Libraries. They have tided over in<br />
changing roles and emerge as ‘Knowledge Centers’ with their Librarians to crusade<br />
as Knowledge Engineers’<br />
2. SCOPE<br />
Paper attempts to illustrate the metamorphosis or change in University<br />
Libraries as “Knowledge Resource Centers” in terms of Infrastructure, Resources,<br />
Services and Personnel.<br />
Infrastructure <strong>for</strong> Knowledge Environment<br />
University Libraries mostly established in a traditional way cannot be done<br />
away, with the advent of technology and modernity. Hence they try to supplement to<br />
encompass the new spaces and equipments to combat the new roles envisaged.<br />
Grants from funding agencies such as the UGC support modernization of the<br />
University Library infrastructure; thus creating online in<strong>for</strong>mation zones,<br />
procurement of hardware such as Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices, large<br />
* Deputy Librarian, University of Madras. E-mail: ravikvallat@hotmail.com<br />
44
capacity database servers (MS SQL Server 2000) multiprocessor workstations,<br />
scanners, printers, data analysis software, security gadgets and applications…<br />
Knowledge Resources and Services<br />
University Libraries usually known <strong>for</strong> their archives of print collection are<br />
slowly building up their digital backfiles to cater to their clientele needs. The concept<br />
of serving as Knowledge Centers has warranted them to acquire electronic resources<br />
of e-books, e-journals, e-databases, e-theses, e-reference works… organize them to<br />
track specific in<strong>for</strong>mation to provide reference <strong>for</strong> researchers and others who do not<br />
have time to do the work themselves.<br />
They also design, compile and build up value-added services such as Subject<br />
Gateways on specific themes such as eg: <strong>Research</strong> funding and writing proposals,<br />
Nanotechnology Gateway and so on.<br />
The Library besides being used in the traditional sense is used more as a<br />
Center where the researcher looks up <strong>for</strong> resources made available at one’s desktop<br />
24x7. The center also faces the challenge of furnishing e-modules of in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
literacy catering to users in the virtual environment with distributed learning in<br />
process.<br />
Another challenge is planning to reach out to users in new ways. Interacting<br />
with the users face to face has been dwindling down, as many a time transactions<br />
occur over the web. With the website becoming the library <strong>for</strong> many of the patrons if<br />
has become crucial to redouble its ef<strong>for</strong>ts to disseminate knowledge through various<br />
access methods. Major role of the center is to sieve through the ‘infoglut’ gathered<br />
not only from internal but external sources stored at other library locations and<br />
organize the knowledge resources in the required <strong>for</strong>mat.<br />
The Knowledge Commission of India also proposes to create/identify<br />
Knowledge Centers with the support of Govt. of India and state governments and<br />
network these knowledge Gateways which could become the National Knowledge<br />
Gateway in future.<br />
3. KNOWLEDGE ENGINEERS OR KNOWLEDGE WORKERS<br />
Traditional capabilities and training to be custodians of books and maintaining<br />
them have changed the librarians to compete in today’s Knowledge economy<br />
increasingly warranting mastery of complex skills.<br />
The level of “in<strong>for</strong>mation skills” with the ability to filter out in<strong>for</strong>mation may<br />
be one of the primary ingredient of a successful knowledge worker. He/She requires<br />
varying depths of knowledge in particular areas (Skyrme 1998) such as<br />
• Technical Skills - in<strong>for</strong>mation (resources) management,<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation technology skills.<br />
• Business Knowledge - industry, markets, customers,<br />
competitors and general<br />
business context.<br />
• Interpersonal skills - networking, listening, interpreting,<br />
challenging, teamwork,<br />
communications.<br />
45
• Management skills - motivating, coaching, faciliting,<br />
influencing.<br />
• Company/organization knowledge - knowledge of procedures and culture.<br />
• Personal characteristics - integrity, confidence, openness, trust,<br />
supportive, honesty, willingness to<br />
learn.<br />
With all these characteristics in mind the University libraries have taken<br />
measures to not only train their professionals to equip them to suit the new roles but<br />
also recruit personnel who could work as Content Managers or Knowledge Portal<br />
Managers. There is a new genre of library professionals to server the knowledge<br />
environment being generated by various library schools or ‘I’ schools.<br />
4. CONCLUSION<br />
It could never be <strong>for</strong>gotten that University Libraries are store-houses of<br />
knowledge and repositories of archival to current research resources. Industries and<br />
small time businesses look up to these institutions <strong>for</strong> their most required resources.<br />
The University Libraries trans<strong>for</strong>ming to Knowledge Centers serve as treasure hunts<br />
and propagate methodologies of making its clientele independent and life long<br />
learners across the knowledge environment.<br />
REFERENCES<br />
1. Aldrich, Duncan M and Stefanelli, Greggory (2006). Library services <strong>for</strong> Digital<br />
Future. Educause Quarterly, No.1, pp.70-73.<br />
2. Materska, Katarzyna (2004). Libraries in the Knowledge age. New Library World,<br />
105 (1198/1199), pp.142-148.<br />
3. Omekwu, Charles Obiora and Eteng, Uwem (2006). Roadmap to change : emerging<br />
roles <strong>for</strong> in<strong>for</strong>mation professionals. Library Review, 55(4), pp.267-277.<br />
4. Parker, Kevin R at al. (2005). Libraries as knowledge management centers. Library<br />
Management, 26 (4/5) pp.176-189.<br />
5. Skyrme, D. (1998). Knowledge management-a fad or a ticket to ride? available at<br />
www.skyrme.com/pubs/iis0298.htm<br />
6. University Library Services (2000). ULS Strategic Plan 1999-2000: Integrating the<br />
Library and the University, University Library Services, available at<br />
www.library.vcu.edu/admin/stratplan/draft1/SP3.html<br />
7. Zhou, Qian (2005) The development of digital libraries in China and the shaping of<br />
digital libraries. The Electronic Library, 23(4), pp.433-441.<br />
46
Industrial Safety In<strong>for</strong>mation:<br />
A Knowledge Management (KM) approach<br />
I.N. Nargund * and Joby Thomas *<br />
Abstract<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation flow is an important factor in the minimisation of hazards to health and ensuring safe<br />
working conditions. Industrial Safety in<strong>for</strong>mation is needed by a wide spectrum of people in an industry.<br />
They need in<strong>for</strong>mation that is appropriate, relevant, up-to-date, usable, conveniently available and directly<br />
applicable to their specific circumstances. In this situation, Knowledge Management will play an essential<br />
role. Knowledge Management is an initiative undertaken to harness the knowledge and experience of its<br />
people. Sharing the best practices and experiences are very important in Industrial Safety Management.<br />
KM tools could give rise to Industrial Safety knowledge management systems that use knowledge to<br />
improve safety per<strong>for</strong>mance. The present paper highlights the need, objectives and importance of KM<br />
initiatives in industries and gives a brief account of how KM principles can be applied to Industrial Safety<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation Management.<br />
Keywords: Knowledge Management; In<strong>for</strong>mation Services; Industrial Safety; Industrial Libraries<br />
1. INTRODUCTION<br />
Knowledge Management (KM) is more a concept than a technology. KM is more<br />
about best practices and procedures rather than pure technology. Consequently, it<br />
requires support from the employees of an organisation and effective use can happen only<br />
when all of them are actively involved. KM is a practice that addresses the need <strong>for</strong><br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation that is required <strong>for</strong> making effective decisions.<br />
In an industrial perspective, Knowledge Management is an art of creating value<br />
from intangible assets. It involves an integrated approach to the creation, capture,<br />
retention, accessing, sharing and leveraging of an enterprise's in<strong>for</strong>mation assets <strong>for</strong><br />
business gain. Knowledge Management is an initiative undertaken to harness the<br />
knowledge and experience of its people. It encompasses a very massive task of<br />
integrating the vast resources of an organisation. Knowledge management focuses on<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation systems that can help people use more in<strong>for</strong>mation more effectively.<br />
Knowledge management (KM) has the goal of providing the right in<strong>for</strong>mation to<br />
the right person at the right time. KM practice should let an organisation provide relevant<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation to each and every user. A proper flow of in<strong>for</strong>mation is essential <strong>for</strong> the<br />
growth of every organisation.<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation flow is an important factor in the minimisation of hazards to health<br />
and environment. Industrial Safety in<strong>for</strong>mation is needed by a wide spectrum of people in<br />
an industry. Industries need in<strong>for</strong>mation that is appropriate, relevant, up-to-date, usable,<br />
conveniently available and directly applicable to specific circumstances. In this situation,<br />
* RMP, BARC, Mysore. inn@rediffmail.com<br />
47
KM will play an essential role, and those organisations that deploy it early on will have<br />
an edge.<br />
The integration of industrial safety objectives with KM tools could give rise to<br />
Industrial Safety knowledge management systems that use knowledge to improve safety<br />
per<strong>for</strong>mance by lowering the in<strong>for</strong>mation barrier that prevents organizations from<br />
realizing highest safety standards.<br />
2. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN INDUSTRIES: NEED<br />
The objectives of knowledge management in an organization are to promote<br />
knowledge growth, knowledge communication and knowledge preservation in the<br />
organization (Steels, 1993). It entails managing knowledge resources in order to facilitate<br />
access and reuse of knowledge (O'Leary, 1998a).<br />
Knowledge Management is highly essential in industries because<br />
• Too much in<strong>for</strong>mation impedes decision-making.<br />
• For managers, relevant in<strong>for</strong>mation is more important than "in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
anywhere".<br />
• Knowledge based working environment is as important as IT <strong>for</strong> effective<br />
knowledge management.<br />
• Effective knowledge management pays.<br />
• Knowledge management is a vital tool <strong>for</strong> competitive advantage.<br />
Knowledge Management delivers benefits like:<br />
• Increased productivity by managing in<strong>for</strong>mation assets better<br />
• Improved access to in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
• Make organisation more knowledge oriented<br />
Knowledge Management in an industry allows its employees to learn about new<br />
technologies, have discussions, get technical queries answered and even draft project<br />
proposals. This may result in a reduction in training time and a boost in productivity due<br />
to better sharing of knowledge among its employees.<br />
Knowledge Management addresses the issues effectively like:<br />
• Ignorance of what knowledge exists, or of where to find it; and<br />
• Keeping a regularly updated record of who knows<br />
3. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT: ROLE OF LIBRARY<br />
In knowledge based economy, libraries functioning in industrial establishments<br />
always referred to as Knowledge <strong>Centre</strong>s. The prime objective of libraries is to serve the<br />
users with ample in<strong>for</strong>mation using tools, techniques and methods of Knowledge<br />
Management. Libraries play a major role in the production, diffusion and utility of<br />
48
knowledge. Libraries must be proactive to take leadership in <strong>for</strong>mulation of policies,<br />
strategies and implementation of new KM techniques.<br />
Here are some of the features of the Technical Library attached to an industry,<br />
which play a vital role in managing knowledge:<br />
• It contains in<strong>for</strong>mation about the quality management system, in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
related to different projects, best practices and lessons learned, technologyrelated<br />
white papers and tutorials;<br />
• Most relevant and regularly up-dated content according to industry verticals<br />
and technologies;<br />
• A helpdesk <strong>for</strong> facilitating process consulting to projects;<br />
• A role based access privilege model that ensures that every user has access<br />
only to in<strong>for</strong>mation pertaining to his department.<br />
Increase in the number of industries and the use of complex technologies &<br />
methods have necessitated the <strong>for</strong>mulation and implementation of effective methods <strong>for</strong><br />
providing safe working conditions in work places. The effectiveness of planning and<br />
execution of programmes on Industrial Safety is substantially related to the relevant<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation.<br />
Library must survey its user in<strong>for</strong>mation needs, identify sources and define<br />
processing systems and distributing channels. It should play an active role to support the<br />
use of available knowledge. Knowledge infrastructure can be regarded as the sum of all<br />
sources and means available to find relevant new knowledge <strong>for</strong> problems at hand. It is<br />
necessary that Librarians <strong>for</strong>mulate requirements <strong>for</strong> a knowledge infrastructure. Those<br />
who play a major role in knowledge creation hardly get time to disseminate it or to look<br />
<strong>for</strong> knowledge users. It is here library work as a facilitator to channel the knowledge<br />
created. Libraries disseminate the knowledge using diverse media and other channels.<br />
High speeds network, setting up of a digital library, establishing web portals to<br />
provide effective web based in<strong>for</strong>mation services are some of the ways libraries must use<br />
to disseminate the knowledge effectively.<br />
Substantial amount of knowledge about the profession of safety comes from the<br />
web sites of various professional organisations. For example the NIOSH web site<br />
(National Institute <strong>for</strong> Occupational Safety and Health –www.cdc.gov) features many<br />
different types of databases and in<strong>for</strong>mation resources. CCOHS web site (Canadian<br />
<strong>Centre</strong> <strong>for</strong> Occupational Health and Safety –www.ccohs.org) is also one of the highly<br />
reliable resource. So the libraries should focus on developing effective ways <strong>for</strong> users to<br />
efficiently navigate the web. One of the solutions to achieve this gaol is through Web<br />
Portals.<br />
An institutional depository with an objective to provide access to research<br />
publications and other documents of respective institution also helps in knowledge<br />
sharing.<br />
49
4. INDUSTRIAL SAFETY AND HEALTH INFORMATION<br />
Industrial Safety and Health in<strong>for</strong>mation is supplementary to the basic knowledge<br />
of materials and processes and it leads to the scientific and methodological approach<br />
towards the control of work and environment. In<strong>for</strong>mation on Industrial Safety is an<br />
essential ingredient <strong>for</strong> improving working conditions. Industrial Safety in<strong>for</strong>mation can<br />
be grouped as Predictive in<strong>for</strong>mation that is the primary management need and<br />
Preventive in<strong>for</strong>mation, which is the need of designers, planners and safety professionals.<br />
The in<strong>for</strong>mation is needed by a wide spectrum of people--managers, engineers,<br />
supervisors, technicians, professionals, researchers and others. Industrial Safety in a<br />
workplace involves a vast array of issues. The in<strong>for</strong>mation required to fulfil these needs<br />
is constantly changing and the demand <strong>for</strong> in<strong>for</strong>mation is expanding. (Lal, A B and Rao,<br />
Chinna Rao)<br />
1. Industrial Safety in<strong>for</strong>mation is needed by the Safety Professionals to:<br />
2. Conduct or co-ordinate worker training in areas such as safety laws and<br />
regulations, hazardous condition monitoring, and use of safety equipment like<br />
PPEs<br />
3. Inspect facilities, machinery, and safety equipment in order to identify and correct<br />
potential hazards, and to ensure safety regulation compliance.<br />
4. Maintain and apply knowledge of current policies, regulations, and industrial<br />
processes.<br />
5. Report or review findings from accident investigations, facilities inspections, or<br />
environmental testing.<br />
6. Compile, analyse, and interpret statistical data related to occupational illnesses<br />
and accidents.<br />
7. Recommend process and product safety features that will reduce employees'<br />
exposure to chemical, physical, and biological work hazards.<br />
8. Conduct or direct testing of air quality, noise, temperature, and/or radiation levels<br />
to verify compliance with health and safety regulations.<br />
9. Provide technical advice and guidance to organisations on how to handle safety<br />
related problems and make needed changes.<br />
10. Write and revise safety regulations and codes.<br />
11. Plan and conduct industrial hygiene research.<br />
12. Design and build safety equipment.<br />
5. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT & INDUSTRIAL SAFETY INFORMATION<br />
SERVICES:<br />
KM initiatives like capturing documents and creating a context sensitive<br />
repository and focusing on converting unstructured data into structured data and<br />
50
warehousing the same have to be taken up scientifically to provide an in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
support to the industrial safety measures.<br />
The training of technicians, the sharing of experiences and the analysis of<br />
accidents and near misses are a few areas in which KM has an essential role to play.<br />
There are number of instances where knowledge management had a direct role in<br />
preventing an industrial accident.<br />
KM approach to Safety Management means urging the industry to take prompt<br />
actions to improve industrial safety and health such as<br />
• Activation of R&D in Safety and Health Technology<br />
• Enlarge technical In<strong>for</strong>mation Service Expansion on Safety and Health<br />
• Support of Advanced Safety and Health Management System<br />
• Make Safety and Health essential<br />
• Support of Industrial Accident Prevention Projects<br />
To enlarge technical In<strong>for</strong>mation Service Expansion on Safety and Health one should<br />
1. develop and distribute technical in<strong>for</strong>mation data sheet to meet the demand<br />
from diverse prospective users;<br />
2. secure in<strong>for</strong>mation infrastructure and expand safety and health community<br />
boundaries and distribute safety and health practice handbook;<br />
3. structure high-speed telecommunication service infrastructure;<br />
Following a systematic and logical approach to capture both explicit and tacit<br />
knowledge can enlarge Safety Knowledge base. The recorded knowledge, which is<br />
explicit, helps immensely the safety professionals to implement and ensure the safe<br />
working conditions. However, the role of tacit knowledge in safety management system<br />
cannot be under estimated. Managing and disseminating tacit knowledge helps an<br />
organisation to establish internal benchmarks and create a motivated environment.<br />
As the saying goes “Safety is everybody’s business”, it is essential to put a<br />
concerted ef<strong>for</strong>t to achieve the safety goals. Employees participation is paramount<br />
importance to achieve the best safety results. To capture the intellectual capital is an<br />
important step in this process. For example getting safety suggestions and ideas from the<br />
employees is considered to be a effective method to capture the tacit knowledge. Any<br />
safety suggestion, which contributes, directly to ease of operation, safety and<br />
environmental protection can be recorded. These suggestions can further get an<br />
authentication by an expert group.<br />
51
Safety Knowledge<br />
Management System<br />
Explicit Knowledge<br />
Tacit Knowledge<br />
Documentary Resources<br />
Human Resources<br />
Manuals, Guidelines<br />
Standards, Reports<br />
Safety Data sheets<br />
Handbooks<br />
Databases<br />
Web-Resources<br />
KM TOOLS<br />
Safety Suggestions<br />
Best Practices<br />
Safety meetings<br />
Accident analysis<br />
Safety Audits<br />
Highest Safety Standards<br />
Effective Decision-making<br />
Enhanced Productivity<br />
Innovation<br />
Zero Accidents<br />
There are many knowledge management issues and practices that have significant<br />
implications on Industrial Safety. For example:<br />
1. How well are minor accidents and near-accidents analysed and discussed<br />
2. During a crisis, how easily can relevant in<strong>for</strong>mation be accessed?<br />
3. How well is essential knowledge transferred from retiring experts to the<br />
younger generation?<br />
Safe working condition depends on safe plant operation right from project site and<br />
technology selection to plant commissioning and regular operation. Knowledge, while<br />
widely collected and held by individuals throughout the firm, is strategically valuable<br />
only when shared, synthesized, and used in unique ways.<br />
6. CONCLUSION<br />
A firm's success in today's dynamic and fiercely competitive environment<br />
depends largely on the ability to use knowledge to develop new products, services and<br />
processes that outper<strong>for</strong>m the products, services, and processes of rivals. It is important to<br />
52
use available knowledge to ensure safe working conditions. Knowledge Management<br />
helps libraries in capturing, collecting, organizing and disseminating the collective<br />
knowledge assets of an organization. KM can also helps libraries to improve their image<br />
and play a leadership role in helping to capture the institutional memory. KM initiatives<br />
succeed in organizations that have strategic goals, knowledge-sharing culture, try<br />
different approaches and use ICT tools effectively.<br />
Knowledge Management principles will help to make an overall evaluation of<br />
opportunities and risks in terms of knowledge management <strong>for</strong> the mitigation of<br />
industrial risk. Regular studies of industrial organizations identify the ways in which their<br />
management of in<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge is helping safety. Knowledge Management<br />
initiatives support the nation's safety, health policies, and accident prevention projects by<br />
ensuring timely and accurate in<strong>for</strong>mation.<br />
REFERENCES<br />
1. Dijik Van, et al: Knowledge management in occupational health, consequences <strong>for</strong><br />
structures and functions. International Congress Series 1294 (2006) 23-26<br />
2. <strong>Gandhi</strong>, Smiti: Knowledge Management and Reference Services. The Journal of<br />
Academic Librarianship Vol 30 (5) Sept 2004, pp.368-381<br />
3. Lal, A B and Rao, Chinna Rao: Safety In<strong>for</strong>mation System. 13 th World Congress on<br />
Occupational Safety and Health 4-8 April, 1993, New Delhi, pp.546-550<br />
4. Nargund I N, et al: Web Resources <strong>for</strong> Chemical Safety In<strong>for</strong>mation: an overview.<br />
<strong>READIT</strong>-2005, IGCAR, Kalpakkam, 2005<br />
5. O'Leary, D. E.: Enterprise knowledge management. Computer, 31 (1998)., 54-61.<br />
6. Shaker A. Zahra et al: Knowledge sharing and technological capabilities: The<br />
moderating role of family involvement. Journal of Business <strong>Research</strong> 20 (<strong>2007</strong>)<br />
7. Steels, L. : Corporate knowledge management. Proceedings of ISMICK193, Compiegne,<br />
8. France, (1993) pp. 9-30.<br />
9. http://www.lntenc.com/lntenc/e-enabling/ (As accessed on 20 th April, <strong>2007</strong>)<br />
10. http://www.networkmagazineindia.com/200502/coverstory09.shtml (accessed on 24-4-<br />
07)<br />
11. http://www.tcs.com/0_media_room/releases/200507july/knowledge_mgt.htm (accessed<br />
on 13 th April, <strong>2007</strong>)<br />
12. http://www.datamatics.com/internationalorganizations.html (As accessed on 1 st May,<br />
<strong>2007</strong>)<br />
53
Multimedia Data Mining in Digital Libraries:<br />
Standards and Features<br />
Sanjeevkumar R. Jadhav * , and Praveenkumar Kumbargoudar *<br />
Abstract<br />
The digital library retrieves, collects, stores and preserves the digital data. For this purpose,<br />
there is need to convert different <strong>for</strong>mats of in<strong>for</strong>mation such as text, images, video, audio, etc. The data mining<br />
techniques are popular while conversion of the multimedia files in the libraries. The present paper attempted to<br />
define the term data mining. It also covered different data mining features and standards. The paper explained<br />
about the Architecture of data mining, which contains the stages of the data mining such as (1) domain<br />
understanding; (2) data selection; (3) cleaning and preprocessing; (4) discovering patters; (5) interpretation;<br />
and (6) reporting and using discovered knowledge. It is emphasized that there is need to develop multimedia<br />
data mining techniques and standards in the library <strong>for</strong> conversion of multimedia in<strong>for</strong>mation.<br />
1. INTRODUCTION<br />
Over the past few decades, rapid changes in in<strong>for</strong>mation technology have drastically<br />
changed the functions and activities of the libraries. The In<strong>for</strong>mation and Communication<br />
Technology created a new type of work culture, new <strong>for</strong>ms of in<strong>for</strong>mation storage, and new<br />
means of communication and dissemination of in<strong>for</strong>mation. The advent of electronic<br />
resources and their increased use in libraries has brought about significant changes in Storage<br />
and Communication of In<strong>for</strong>mation.<br />
As a Result, the Conventional libraries are trans<strong>for</strong>ming into digital libraries.<br />
Majority of the libraries have computerized already and digitizing their printed collection. In<br />
India, the process of digitization is slow compared to other developed countries. This is so<br />
because, only 21% of the Indian population is computer literate and only 14% of the Indian<br />
Population is using Internet. Due to the development in digitization, many of the libraries<br />
are digitizing their collection by trans<strong>for</strong>ming their printed materials into digital <strong>for</strong>m.<br />
A fully developed digital library environment involves the following elements 1 :<br />
1. Initial Conversion of Content from Physical to Digital <strong>for</strong>m.<br />
2. The extraction or creation of metadata or indexing in<strong>for</strong>mation describing the content<br />
to facilitate searching and discovery, as well as administrative and structural metadata<br />
to assist in object viewing, management and preservation.<br />
3. Storage of digital content and metadata in appropriate multimedia repository. The<br />
repository will include rights management capabilities to en<strong>for</strong>ce Intellectual Property<br />
Rights, if required. e-commerce functionality may also be present if needed to handle<br />
accounting and billing.<br />
4. Client Services <strong>for</strong> the browser, including repository querying and workflow.<br />
5. Content delivery via file transfer or streaming media.<br />
6. Patron access through a browser or dedicated client.<br />
* Gulbarga University, GULBARGA: 585 106. Karnataka. E-Mail: kumbargoudar@rediffmail.com<br />
54
7. A private or public network.<br />
2. DIGITIZATION AND DATA MINING<br />
Digitization refers to the conversion of an item – be it printed text, manuscript, image<br />
or sound, film and video recording – from one <strong>for</strong>mat (usually print or analogue) into digital.<br />
The process basically involves taking a physical object and essentially making an ‘electronic<br />
photograph’ of it. An image of the physical object is captured- using a scanner or digital<br />
camera – and converted to digital <strong>for</strong>mat that can be stored electronically and accessed via a<br />
computer 2 .<br />
It is noted that the data and in<strong>for</strong>mation available in different <strong>for</strong>mats. These <strong>for</strong>mats<br />
include Text, Images, Video, Audio, Picture, Maps, etc. It is noted that in case of text<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation, there is needed to scan the printed text through scanners and provide different<br />
links to access it. But in case of multimedia <strong>for</strong>mats like images, Audio, Picture, Maps,<br />
Video etc, the conversion and systematic presentation is not easy. Further, there is needed to<br />
make automatic search <strong>for</strong> easy accessibility. The easy search, effective and systematic<br />
presentation of the data is essential in case of multimedia in<strong>for</strong>mation. For this purpose, there<br />
is need to adopt data mining techniques in the library. Data mining techniques are basically<br />
from logic, Multimedia and Artificial Intelligence techniques.<br />
Data mining is the automatic extraction of patterns of in<strong>for</strong>mation from historical<br />
data, enabling companies to focus on the next important aspects of their business—telling<br />
them what they did not know and had not even thought of asking 3 . Data mining is that it “is<br />
the process of automating in<strong>for</strong>mation discovery” 4 , which improves decision making and<br />
gives a company advantages on the market. Another definition is that is “is the exploration<br />
and analysis, by automatic or semiautomatic means, of large quantities of data in order to<br />
discover meaningful patterns and rules: 5 Data mining is an applied discipline, which grew<br />
our of the statistical pattern recognition, machine learning, and artificial intelligence and<br />
coupled with business decision making to optimize and enhance it. Initially, data mining<br />
techniques have been applied to structured data from databases.<br />
Recently two branches of data mining, text data mining and Web data mining, have<br />
emerged 6&7 . They have their own research agenda, communities of researchers, and<br />
supporting companies that develop technologies and tools. Un<strong>for</strong>tunately, today multimedia<br />
data mining is in beginning stage and still there is need <strong>for</strong> developments to make effective<br />
presentation of multimedia in<strong>for</strong>mation.<br />
There are four types of multimedia data: audio data, which includes sound , speech,<br />
and music; image data (black-and-white and colour images); video data, which include timealigned<br />
sequences of images; and electronic or digital, which is sequences of time aligned 2D<br />
or 3D coordinates of a stylus, a light per, data glove sensors, or a similar device. All this data<br />
is generated by specific kind of sensors.<br />
The concept of mining in multimedia is also referred to as automatic annotation or<br />
annotation mining. There appears to be three main pattern discovery approaches that have<br />
been used <strong>for</strong> automatic annotation in multimedia data mining. These approaches primarily<br />
differ in terms of how external knowledge is provided to mine concepts. The first approach<br />
includes assigning key words or classifying the data. The second approach <strong>for</strong> automatic<br />
annotation is through clustering and here multimedia documents are clustered first and then<br />
the resulting clusters are assigned keywords by annotator. The third approach does not rely<br />
on manual annotator and it tries to mine concepts by knowing the contextual in<strong>for</strong>mation.<br />
55
The Multimedia Data Mining (MDM) is a part of multimedia technology, which<br />
covers the following areas 8 .<br />
‣ Media compression and storage.<br />
‣ Delivering streaming media over networks with required quality of service.<br />
‣ Media restoration, trans<strong>for</strong>mation, and editing.<br />
‣ Media indexing, summarization, search, and retrieval.<br />
‣ Creating interactive multimedia systems <strong>for</strong> learning/training and creative art<br />
production.<br />
‣ Creating multimodal user interfaces.<br />
3. MULTIMEDIA DATA MINING ARCHITECTURE<br />
The data mining process consists of several processes and stages, which are related to<br />
each other and interactive. The main stages of the data mining process are (1) domain<br />
understanding; (2) data selection; (3) cleaning and preprocessing; (4) discovering patters; (5)<br />
interpretation; and (6) reporting and using discovered knowledge. The domain understanding<br />
stage requires learning how the results of data-mining will be used so as to gather all relevant<br />
prior knowledge be<strong>for</strong>e mining 9 .<br />
Figure: Multimedia Data Mining Architecture<br />
The data selection stage requires the user to target a database or select a subset of<br />
fields or data records to be used <strong>for</strong> data mining. A proper domain understands at this stage<br />
56
helps in the identification of useful data. This is the most time consuming stage of the entire<br />
data mining process <strong>for</strong> business applications; data are never clean and in the <strong>for</strong>m suitable<br />
<strong>for</strong> data mining. For multimedia data mining, this stage is generally not an issue, because the<br />
data are not in relational <strong>for</strong>m and there are no subsets of fields to choose from.<br />
The next stage in a typical data mining process is the preprocessing step that involves<br />
integrating data from different sources and making choices about representing or coding<br />
certain data fields that serve as inputs to the pattern discovery stage. Such representation<br />
choices are needed because certain fields may contain data at levels of details not considered<br />
suitable <strong>for</strong> the pattern discovery stage. The preprocessing stage is of considerable<br />
importance in multimedia data mining, given the unstructured nature of multimedia data.<br />
The pattern discovery stage is the heart of the entire data mining process. It is the<br />
stage where the hidden patterns and trends in the data are actually uncovered. There are<br />
several approaches to the pattern discovery stage. These include association, classification,<br />
clustering, regression, time-series analysis and visualization. Each of these approaches can<br />
be implemented through one of several competing methodologies, such as statistical data<br />
analysis, machine learning, neural networks and pattern recognition. It is because of the use<br />
of methodologies from several disciplines that data mining is often viewed as a<br />
multidisciplinary field.<br />
The interpretation stage of the data mining process is used to evaluate the quality of<br />
discovery and its value to determine whether previous stage should be revisited or not.<br />
Proper domain understanding is crucial at this stage to put a value on discovered patterns.<br />
The final stage of the data mining process consists of reporting and putting to use the<br />
discovered knowledge to generate new actions or products and services or marketing<br />
strategies as the case may be.<br />
According to Myatt 10 any exploratory data mining project should include the<br />
following steps:<br />
1. Problem Definition: The problem to be solved along with the projected deliverables<br />
(in<strong>for</strong>mation products) should be clearly defined, an appropriate team should be put<br />
together, and a plan generated <strong>for</strong> executing the analysis.<br />
2. Data Preparation: Prior to starting any data analysis or data mining project, the data<br />
should be collected characterized, cleaned, trans<strong>for</strong>med, and partitioned into an<br />
appropriate <strong>for</strong>m <strong>for</strong> processing further.<br />
3. Implementation of the Analysis: On the basis of the in<strong>for</strong>mation from steps 1 & 2,<br />
appropriate analysis techniques should be selected and often these methods need to be<br />
optimized.<br />
4. Deployment of Results: The Results from Step 3 should be communicated and/ or<br />
deployed into a pre-existing process.<br />
4. FEATURES AND STANDARDS FOR MULTIMEDIA DATA MINING<br />
It is noted that different image attributes such as Colour, edges, shape, and texture are<br />
used to extract features <strong>for</strong> mining. Feature extraction based on these attributes may be<br />
57
per<strong>for</strong>med at the global or local level. For example, colour histograms may be used as<br />
features to characterize the spatial distribution of colour in an image. Similarly, the shape of<br />
a segmented region may be represented as a feature vector of Fourier descriptors to capture<br />
global shape property of the segmented region or a shape could be described in terms of<br />
salient points or segments to provide localized descriptions. Global descriptors are generally<br />
easy to compute, provide a compact representation, and are less prone to segmentation errors.<br />
However such descriptors may fail to uncover subtle patterns or changes in shape because<br />
global descriptors tend to integrate the underlying in<strong>for</strong>mation. Local descriptors, on the<br />
other hand, tend to do generate more elaborate representation and can yield useful results<br />
even when part of the underlying attribute, <strong>for</strong> example, the shape of a region is occluded, is<br />
missing. In the case of video, additional attributes resulting from object and camera motion<br />
are used.<br />
In case of audio, both the temporal and the spectral domain features have been<br />
employed. Examples of some of the features used include short-time energy, pause rate,<br />
zero-crossing rate, normalized harmonicity, fundamental frequency, frequency spectrum,<br />
bandwidth, spectral centroid, spectral roll-off frequency and band energy ratio. Many<br />
researchers have found the cepstral based features, Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients<br />
(MFCC) and Linear Predictive Coefficients (LPC), very useful, especially in mining tasks<br />
involving speech recognition. The MPEG-7 standard provides a good representative set of<br />
features <strong>for</strong> multimedia data. The features are referred as descriptors in MPEG-7. The<br />
MPEG-7 Visual description tools describe visual data such as images and videos while the<br />
Audio description tools account <strong>for</strong> audio data. The MPEG-7 visual description defines the<br />
following main features <strong>for</strong> color attributes: Color Layout Descriptor, Color Structure<br />
Descriptor, Dominant Color Descriptor and Scalable Color Descriptor. The Color Layout<br />
Descriptor is a compact and resolution invariant descriptor that is defined as YCbCr Color<br />
space to capture the spatial distribution of color over major image regions. The Color<br />
Structure Descriptor captures both color content and in<strong>for</strong>mation about its spatial<br />
arrangement using a structuring element that is moved over the image. The Dominant Color<br />
Descriptor characterizes an image or an arbitrarily shaped region by a small number of<br />
representative colors. The Scalable Color Descriptor is a color histogram in the HSV Color<br />
Space encoded by Haar trans<strong>for</strong>m to yield a scalable representation. While the above<br />
features are defined with respect to an image or its part, the feature Group of Frames-Group<br />
of Pictures Color (GoFGoPColor) describes the color histogram aggregated over multiple<br />
frames of a video 9 .<br />
MPEG-7 provides <strong>for</strong> two main shape descriptors; others are based on these and<br />
additional semantic in<strong>for</strong>mation. The Region shape Descriptor describers the shape of a<br />
region using Angular Radial Trans<strong>for</strong>m (ART). The description is provided in terms of 40<br />
coefficients and is suitable <strong>for</strong> complex objects consisting of multiple disconnected regions<br />
and <strong>for</strong> simple objects with or without holes. The Contour Shape Descriptor describes the<br />
shape of an object based on its outlines. The descriptor used the curvature scale space<br />
representation of the contour.<br />
The motion descriptors in MPEG-7 are defined to cover a broad range of applications.<br />
The motion activity descriptor captures the intuitive notion of intensity or pace of action in a<br />
video clip. The descriptor provides in<strong>for</strong>mation <strong>for</strong> intensity, direction, and spatial and<br />
temporal distribution of activity in a video segment. The spatial distribution of activity<br />
indicates whether the activity is spatially limited or not. Similarly, the temporal distribution<br />
of activity indicates how the level of activity varies over the entire segment. The Camera<br />
Motion Descriptor specifies the camera motion types and their quantitative characterization<br />
over the entire video segment. The Motion Trajectory Descriptor describes motion trajectory<br />
58
of moving object basic on spatiotemporal localization of trajectory points. The description<br />
provided is at a fairly high level as each moving object is indicated by one representative<br />
point at any time instant. The parametric Motion Descriptors describes motion, global and<br />
object motion, in a bideo segment by describing the evolution of arbitrarily shaped regions<br />
over time using a two-dimensional geometric trans<strong>for</strong>m.<br />
The MPEG-7 Audio standard defines two sets of audio descriptors. The first set is of<br />
low-level features, which are meant <strong>for</strong> a wide range of applications. The descriptors in this<br />
set include silence, power, Spectrum, and Harmonicity. The silence Descriptor simply<br />
indicates that there is no significant sound in the audio segment. The power Descriptor<br />
measures temporally smoothed instantaneous signal power. The Spectrum Descriptor<br />
captures properties such as the audio spectrum envelope, spectrum centroid spectrum spread,<br />
spectrum flatness, and fundamental frequency. The second set of audio descriptors is of<br />
high-level feature, which are meant <strong>for</strong> specific applications. The features in this set include<br />
Audio Signature, Timbre, and Melody. The Signature Descriptor is designed to generate a<br />
unique identifier <strong>for</strong> identifying audio content. The Timbre Descriptor captures perceptual<br />
features of instrument sound. The Melody Descriptor captures monophonic melodic<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation and is useful <strong>for</strong> matching of melodies. In addition, the high-level descriptors in<br />
MPEG-7 Audio include descriptors <strong>for</strong> automatic speech recognition, sound classification<br />
and indexing.<br />
5. MULTIMEDIA DATA MINING IN DIGITAL LIBRARIES:<br />
Quan Liu 11 suggested the ‘Standards and guidelines associated with library<br />
digitization practices vary from project to project. Over the years, university, public, school,<br />
and special libraries have adopted their own policies with regard to digitization. Some older<br />
standards, as well as more recent ones, are widely accepted and practiced library digitization<br />
projects. Metadata standards and image quality standards and guidelines are commonly<br />
sought when planning digitization projects… Common metadata standards used to date are<br />
Dublin Core, RDF, EAD, TEI, and SGML and its descendents XML and HTML. The MARC<br />
standard has been used as the standard interchange <strong>for</strong>mat in representing catalog records<br />
electronically’.<br />
It is noted that in India, only a few University and College libraries have already<br />
started digitization and a majority of the University and College libraries are yet to start the<br />
work of digitization and conversion work of their collection. Further, it is noted that the<br />
experts in library science and in<strong>for</strong>mation science, to large extent only provided guidelines<br />
<strong>for</strong> conversion of text documents. Hence, there is need to know about the standards and<br />
processes of the data mining and storage of multimedia data through data mining techniques.<br />
6. CONCLUSION<br />
Multimedia data mining techniques are active and growing area of research now. In<br />
case of digital library projects, there is need <strong>for</strong> multimedia data mining <strong>for</strong> conversion and<br />
preservation of multimedia in<strong>for</strong>mation. There is needed to make data mining strategy <strong>for</strong><br />
conversion of multimedia files in the libraries. The digital libraries, to a large extent<br />
accessible through the web, must present multimedia in<strong>for</strong>mation effectively. Then the<br />
purpose of these libraries is served properly. To serve this purpose, there is needed to <strong>for</strong>m<br />
data mining strategy, considering standards, features and available techniques.<br />
59
REFERENCES<br />
1. Sinha, Manojkumar and Others: Digital Library Initiatives in India <strong>for</strong> Open Access: An<br />
Overview. 4 th International CALIBER 2006. Gulbarga: Gulbarga University, 2-4 February<br />
2006. P. 149-164.<br />
2. Parekh, Harsha and Sen, Bharati: Introduction to Digitization: a Librarian’s Guide. Mumbai:<br />
SHPT School of Library Science, SNDT Women’s University, 2001. P. 8.<br />
3. Bharihoke, Deepak: Fundamentals of In<strong>for</strong>mation Technology. 3 rd Ed. New Delhi: Excel<br />
books, 2005.<br />
4. Groth, R: Data Mining: A Hands On Approach <strong>for</strong> Business Professionals. Upper Saddle<br />
River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1998.<br />
5. Berry, MJA and Linoff, G: Data Mining Techniques <strong>for</strong> Marketing, Sales and Customer<br />
Support. New York: Wiley Computer Publishing, 1997.<br />
6. Agosta, L: The future of data mining- Predictive Analytics. IT View Report, Forrester<br />
<strong>Research</strong>, http://www.<strong>for</strong>rester.com/<strong>Research</strong>/LegacyIT/0,7208,32896,00.html accessed on<br />
30th April <strong>2007</strong>.<br />
7. Berry, MW, Ed: Survey of Text Mining: Clustering, Classification and Retrieval. New York:<br />
Springer-Verlag, 2004.<br />
8. Petrushin, Valery A: Introduction into Multimedia Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery.<br />
IN Multimedia Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery. Edited by Valery A Petrushin and<br />
Latifur Khan. London: Springer-Verlag, <strong>2007</strong>. P. 3-13.<br />
9. Patel, Nilesh and Sethi, Ishwar: Multimedia Data Mining: An Overview. IN Multimedia Data<br />
Mining and Knowledge Discovery. Edited by Valery A Petrushin and Latifur Khan. London:<br />
Springer-Verlag, <strong>2007</strong>. P. 14-40.<br />
10. Myatt, Glenn J: Making Sense of Data: A Practical Guide to Exploratory Data Analysis and<br />
Data Mining. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, <strong>2007</strong>.<br />
11. Quan Liu, Yan: Best practices, standards and techniques <strong>for</strong> digitizing library materials: a<br />
snapshot of library digitization practices in the USA. Online In<strong>for</strong>mation Review. Vol. 28.<br />
No. 5. 2004. P. 338-345.<br />
60
In<strong>for</strong>mation Resource Management in a<br />
Knowledge Society<br />
V. Rajendran* and E. Soundararajan *<br />
Abstract<br />
Digital Libraries have to serve the needs of knowledge society where the organizational<br />
knowledge, individual knowledge and other resources of knowledge have to be managed and<br />
disseminated. Librarians who have been the traditional in<strong>for</strong>mation resource managers have a vital<br />
role to play in this context. They are responsible <strong>for</strong> in<strong>for</strong>mation resource management in effective and<br />
efficient way. In<strong>for</strong>mation resources management includes the basic infrastructure management,<br />
underlying technology, standards and protocols, access models and finally the user management which<br />
is the ultimate purpose of any knowledge management process. This paper highlights essential aspects<br />
of in<strong>for</strong>mation resource management with a special reference to <strong>Indira</strong> <strong>Gandhi</strong> centre <strong>for</strong> <strong>Atomic</strong><br />
<strong>Research</strong> (IGCAR) environment.<br />
1. INTRODUCTION<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation is an important resource in the “Knowledge Society” and its<br />
management is very different from traditional Library management. Mostly, it<br />
involves management of change, time and electronic sources, along with traditional<br />
collection management aspects. In<strong>for</strong>mation resource management is a philosophical<br />
and practical approach to managing in<strong>for</strong>mation. Because in<strong>for</strong>mation is a valuable<br />
resource to be managed like other resources, IRM contributes directly to<br />
accomplishing organizational goals and objectives. It provides an integrated approach<br />
to managing the entire life cycle of in<strong>for</strong>mation—from creation, to dissemination, to<br />
archiving or destruction—so as to maximize the overall usefulness of in<strong>for</strong>mation.<br />
Forest W. Horton (1979) one of the leading experts in the area of IRM, defines<br />
“Resource Management system includes all methods and procedures <strong>for</strong> collecting<br />
and processing in<strong>for</strong>mation on a particular resource (i.e. men, money, machines, or<br />
what is germane to our subject here, in<strong>for</strong>mation itself) and <strong>for</strong>matting that data in a<br />
manner which is useful <strong>for</strong> management”.<br />
The most comprehensive definition offered by Horton in his book<br />
“In<strong>for</strong>mation resources management: harnessing in<strong>for</strong>mation assets <strong>for</strong> productivity<br />
gains in office, factory and laboratory” (1985) states that IRM is:<br />
“a managerial discipline which views in<strong>for</strong>mation as a resource equal to<br />
financial, physical, human, and natural resources. IRM addresses the efficient and<br />
effective handling of in<strong>for</strong>mation resources (raw data) and the resulting in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
assets (knowledge)”.<br />
There are at least three events which, when combined together, triggered the<br />
inception of IRM. The main events are:<br />
* Scientific In<strong>for</strong>mation Resource Division, <strong>Indira</strong> <strong>Gandhi</strong> <strong>Centre</strong> <strong>for</strong> <strong>Atomic</strong> <strong>Research</strong>, Kalpakkam<br />
Tamilnadu -603 102. Email: vraj@igcar.gov.in<br />
61
- In<strong>for</strong>mation explosion<br />
- Proliferation of paper<br />
- Extensive use of in<strong>for</strong>mation handling technologies<br />
2. INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT<br />
We can classify the different requirements <strong>for</strong> proper infrastructure<br />
establishment as:<br />
• Network environment<br />
• System Requirements<br />
• Content Creation, and<br />
• In<strong>for</strong>mation Storage & Retrieval (ISR)<br />
The basic requirement <strong>for</strong> a Digital Library is well-planned and tuned network<br />
environment. Networked Environment could mean an intranet, which is a set of Local<br />
Area Networks (LANs) with in an organization. More widely, it could also mean<br />
internet. The per<strong>for</strong>mance of the Networked environment is determined by the factors<br />
of hardware (Switches, Routers, Servers, etc.) and Software (Operating System,<br />
Application Programs).<br />
Document<br />
Management Server<br />
Video Streaming<br />
Server<br />
Content Creation<br />
Server<br />
User Stations<br />
Knowledge Resource<br />
Server<br />
Library Gateway<br />
Server<br />
Reports Collection<br />
Server<br />
Digital Library<br />
Transaction Server<br />
Full Text Resources<br />
Server<br />
CD /DVD Resource<br />
Collection Server<br />
Storage (NAS) Server<br />
Centralized Tape<br />
Library<br />
Fiber<br />
Uplink<br />
IGC NET<br />
Fig.1 IGCAR Library Configuration<br />
Designing and establishing the infrastructure <strong>for</strong> a suitable networked<br />
environment in a library is more important and could have impact on its in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
services. The networked environment should exist in the entire organization to serve<br />
its in<strong>for</strong>mation requirements of the users.<br />
62
System Requirements <strong>for</strong> Digital Library<br />
Hardware Requirements<br />
Software Specification<br />
• Server Class Systems<br />
• Operating System – Server /Client<br />
• Work Stations<br />
• Database Software<br />
• Scanning & Capturing Devices<br />
• Documents Management Software<br />
• Intranet & Internet<br />
• Backup Management Software<br />
• Storage Servers (NAS)<br />
• Library Portal & Search Engines<br />
• Backup Devices (Tape Library)<br />
• Web Server / Browser<br />
• Printer<br />
• Authentication Management<br />
• UPS<br />
• Web tools & PDF Suite etc<br />
Table 1: System Requirements <strong>for</strong> Digital Library<br />
The capable and adequate servers with enough processors, memory and other<br />
resources must be procured <strong>for</strong> hosting different in<strong>for</strong>mation resources. IGCAR<br />
library has over 12 servers with Intel Xeon processor with high-speed memory <strong>for</strong><br />
different E-Collections, E-Applications, Document Management, Knowledge<br />
Resources, Library Automation and in<strong>for</strong>mation services. From the client side, a<br />
Pentium PC with minimum resources is required which must be connected to the<br />
network so as to have the desktop access to vital in<strong>for</strong>mation resources from Library<br />
easily.<br />
Similarly, necessary software <strong>for</strong> server and client side like operating systems,<br />
anti virus package, document management systems, digital library solutions etc have<br />
to be procured <strong>for</strong> efficient functioning of digital library.<br />
3. RESOURCES MANAGEMENT<br />
Scientific In<strong>for</strong>mation Resource Division at <strong>Indira</strong> <strong>Gandhi</strong> <strong>Centre</strong> <strong>for</strong> <strong>Atomic</strong><br />
<strong>Research</strong> holds very large collection of books, journals, technical reports, standards,<br />
etc, and e-journals, full text standards in e-<strong>for</strong>mat and also international bibliographic<br />
databases.<br />
Digital resources management is a process consisting of collection<br />
development, in<strong>for</strong>mation management and digital asset management. The<br />
development of digital collections should be guided by the same principles as the<br />
development of any other library collection, those of meeting the needs of the<br />
perceived user base and of acquiring materials that might be valuable to the users of<br />
the future. In general, there are 3 different ways through which digital collections are<br />
acquired.<br />
3.1 Digitizing own collection<br />
Libraries are <strong>for</strong>ced to establish a content creation section that can consist of<br />
both multimedia and scanning units. To digitize any document, the basic requirement<br />
is the need to have a suitable scanner & software like OCR. Multimedia section can<br />
63
also go together <strong>for</strong> adding visual and sound in<strong>for</strong>mation. Digitized in<strong>for</strong>mation must<br />
be clearly identified, properly indexed and well organized <strong>for</strong> archival and<br />
dissemination.<br />
3.2 Acquiring or licensing from Publishers<br />
Digital resources could be in the <strong>for</strong>m of databases and even full text. They<br />
could be purchased / subscribed from the vendors or publishers. These resources may<br />
be offered to library in one of the following models<br />
a. Single user<br />
b. Site License<br />
c. Consortia<br />
The usage based pricing concept, which defines the price based on the amount<br />
of usage by the patrons, is the emerging one. Whatever be the model, the continued<br />
access and support from the publishers are the key factors to be considered while<br />
subscribing<br />
3.3 Creating resources from World Wide Web (Free Resources)<br />
The web has a very large content and continues to grow exponentially. The<br />
content from the web could be a good resource to library. There are many free<br />
resources available from Internet like free e-journals, databases, bibliographic and full<br />
text contents. Using search engines or web crawlers, the required in<strong>for</strong>mation can be<br />
filtered and classified to make subject specific portal.<br />
4. INFORMATION MANAGEMENT<br />
The exponential growth of in<strong>for</strong>mation has put a demand be<strong>for</strong>e in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
professionals <strong>for</strong> a new evolutionary technology to support effective search and<br />
indexing functionalities. Digital libraries should integrate a variety of in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
technologies and provide opportunities to organize and access large volumes of<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation from multiple repositories. Through this integration, the distributed<br />
heterogeneous resources spread across the network appear to be a single uni<strong>for</strong>m<br />
federated source.<br />
4.1 Metadata Management<br />
Metadata is one of the important concepts <strong>for</strong> the description, organization,<br />
exchange and retrieval of in<strong>for</strong>mation in a networked environment. It is one of the<br />
critical components of digital resource development and use, and is needed at all<br />
stages in the creation and management of resources. Well <strong>for</strong>med metadata is the most<br />
efficient and effective tool <strong>for</strong> managing and finding objects in the complex<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation spaces. In<strong>for</strong>mation resources must be made visible in a way that allows<br />
people to tell whether the resources are likely to be useful to them. This is no less<br />
important in the online world, and in particular, the World Wide Web. Metadata is a<br />
systematic method <strong>for</strong> describing resources and thereby improving access to them. If<br />
a resource is worth making available, then it is worth describing it with metadata, so<br />
as to maximize the ability to locate it.<br />
5. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT<br />
Nowadays, the role of in<strong>for</strong>mation professional is beyond issues related to<br />
displaying, cataloging, and indexing documents <strong>for</strong> end users. Digitizing the<br />
64
in<strong>for</strong>mation and publishing it on the web is far from knowledge management. To<br />
provide high quality in<strong>for</strong>mation services to users, libraries need to describe the<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation using metadata and organize them using classification schemes. Keyword<br />
based searching may not retrieve the content what user is looking <strong>for</strong>. For more<br />
effective and efficient search, the support of subject specific thesaurus can be used.<br />
To be successful in Knowledge Management, DL must become a knowledge space<br />
<strong>for</strong> a wide spread of knowledge enquiry, sharing and propagation.<br />
DL<br />
Knowledge Enquiry<br />
(Knowledge Base)<br />
Looking <strong>for</strong> Knowledge<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation Browsing<br />
Intelligent In<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
DL Searching<br />
Fig.2 Knowledge Discovery<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation Search is targeted towards a specific document by user request.<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation browsing produces a conceptual map of set of documents. Knowledge<br />
discovery from the in<strong>for</strong>mation require intelligent answers to user queries with the<br />
support of set(s) of relevant documents. To <strong>for</strong>m a knowledge base, the classification<br />
and thesaurus are to be merged into a concept network and the metadata are<br />
distributed into nodes of concept network according to their subjects. This is not only<br />
the framework <strong>for</strong> knowledge organization but also a structure <strong>for</strong> knowledge<br />
Navigation retrieval and learning.<br />
6. USER MANAGEMENT<br />
Basically, in<strong>for</strong>mation services consist of three main points, and libraries<br />
should be able to (i) provide in<strong>for</strong>mation services to the patrons (ii) provide access to<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation, and (iii) satisfy patrons' in<strong>for</strong>mation needs. Libraries should <strong>for</strong>m the<br />
amount of services and resources considering different patrons' needs. The whole<br />
variety of patrons' needs can be generally divided into three main groups.<br />
6.1 Access<br />
Libraries should provide open access to different kinds of in<strong>for</strong>mation in<br />
different <strong>for</strong>ms and on different media. In other words, a patron may need textbooks,<br />
reference works, dissertations, reviews, biographies, etc. in different languages and<br />
publication date. They may need a printed original or a digital copy, they may want to<br />
watch a screen version of a book or listen to some audio clips. A library must provide<br />
not only the resource itself, but an opportunity to read, watch, listen or study it.<br />
65
6.2 Format<br />
This refers to the ability to convert in<strong>for</strong>mation from one <strong>for</strong>mat to another. It<br />
means that a user might need to digitize a traditional printed resource. Libraries must<br />
have necessary infrastructure <strong>for</strong> content creation, scanning etc. And, on the contrary,<br />
a user might need to print a text or image. Hence libraries must cope up with the<br />
heterogeneity in the in<strong>for</strong>mation <strong>for</strong>mats, medias and technology in order to provide a<br />
seamless smooth functioning to their patrons.<br />
6.3 Time<br />
Library patrons in<strong>for</strong>mation needs to be answered 24/7. The patron doesn't<br />
need to go to the library to learn its working hours or to find out the availability of a<br />
book. If a library has its own website or a webpage - all the in<strong>for</strong>mation may be<br />
published there, so that users can get the in<strong>for</strong>mation from their desktop itself.<br />
7. THE ROLE OF LIBRARIAN<br />
Any product requires advertisement and it could be simple in<strong>for</strong>mative or<br />
educative. In case of library applications, both in<strong>for</strong>mative and educative approaches<br />
are required. Librarians are required to provide the user support using the in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
technology developments like email, chat services, web technology, etc. Multimedia<br />
Presentations, Road Shows, Workshops, User Manuals, Helpdesk are some the<br />
techniques <strong>for</strong> user education. Digital Librarian who acts as digital in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
manager need to face the following challenges.<br />
• Hybrid Librarian<br />
The Hybrid librarian role is to integrate in<strong>for</strong>mation systems and services<br />
using the most appropriate resource, whether print or technology based, to<br />
achieve the user’s in<strong>for</strong>mation need.<br />
• In<strong>for</strong>mation Architect<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation Architect is concerned with the way that content is structured<br />
<strong>for</strong> use. The Metadata standards like XML/MARC are the specific area in<br />
which the librarian should be familiar with.<br />
• Knowledge Preserver & Mediator<br />
This is connected with the preservation of digital contents and discovering<br />
and disseminating the in<strong>for</strong>mation resources.<br />
8. BENEFITS OF IMPLEMENTING AN IRM STRATEGY<br />
• Identifies gaps and duplication of in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
• Clarifies roles and responsibilities of owners and users of in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
• Provide costs saving in the procurement and handling of in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
• Identifies cost/benefits of different in<strong>for</strong>mation resources<br />
• Actively supports management decision processes with quality<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
66
9. CONCLUSION<br />
To face these challenges, the librarian needs to enhance his skills on<br />
managerial, technical and subject areas particularly on:<br />
• Computer Networking<br />
• Internet In<strong>for</strong>mation Access<br />
• Email based in<strong>for</strong>mation Exchange<br />
• In<strong>for</strong>mation Search engines<br />
• Metadata Standards (XML, MARC etc)<br />
• Content Creation and Representations methods<br />
• Dissemination of the in<strong>for</strong>mation over the network<br />
• Web Publishing Technology<br />
• User friendly retrieval system<br />
• Selection of in<strong>for</strong>mation resources in different media and collection<br />
development<br />
• To provide flexibility, ease of use and access in cost-effective way<br />
REFERENCES:<br />
1. Savic, Dobrica (1992) Evolution of in<strong>for</strong>mation resource management. Journal of<br />
Librarianship and In<strong>for</strong>mation Science. 24(3)p. 127-138<br />
2. Willard, Nick (1993) In<strong>for</strong>mation Resources Management. Aslib In<strong>for</strong>mation, 21(5).<br />
3. http://drtc.isibang.ac.in/~aparajita/In<strong>for</strong>mation%20resource%20management.ppt (06-<br />
06-<strong>2007</strong>)<br />
4. http://www.library.uq.edu.au/iad/ctmeta4.html (29-07-2003)<br />
5. Soundararajan, E; Joseph, JVM; Jayakumar, C; Venkadesan, S (2003) Networked<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation Services: A case study of IGCAR Library. Manlibnet National<br />
Convention, XLRI, Jamshedpur. March 6-8, 2003<br />
6. Soundararajan, E; Joseph, JVM; Jayakumar, C (2001). Building Up E-Collections at<br />
IGCAR Library. <strong>READIT</strong>-2001. 18-19 Sep 2001. IIT, Chennai.<br />
67
Using Knowledge mapping to support knowledge<br />
management in health organizations<br />
Sangita Gupta * , Sneh Lata Sharma ** and Kavita Dutta ***<br />
Abstract<br />
Creating visual representations i.e. charts or maps, of repositories can be an useful exercise<br />
in knowledge management. This knowledge map serve as a blueprint to pinpoint to knowledge sources<br />
and will help in locating relevant in<strong>for</strong>mation in the organization. This article briefly discusses<br />
knowledge translation and knowledge mapping. It focuses on the use of knowledge mapping as a<br />
technique to support knowledge translation in health organizations in order to bridge the gap between<br />
knowledge generated and action <strong>for</strong> health. This paper explores the possibility <strong>for</strong> integrating<br />
knowledge mapping with conceptual framework so that it can help understanding many complex<br />
processes, resources and people involved in health system.<br />
INTRODUCTION<br />
Knowledge translation program was founded in the year 2000 by the<br />
Department of Medicine, Family and Community Medicine, Health Policy<br />
Management and Evaluation, Public health sciences, through funding from the<br />
Academic Priorities fund, University of Toronto. The process was developed in<br />
response to the gap between research evidence and clinical practice. Initiatives were<br />
needed to facilitate interaction between researchers and policy-makes to foster greater<br />
use of research findings and evidence in policy-making and to narrow the “know-dogap”.<br />
The Canadian Institute of Health <strong>Research</strong> (CIHR) has referred to knowledge<br />
translation as the process of supporting the uptake of health research in a manner that<br />
improves the health and health care of Canadians through improved understandings,<br />
processes, sciences, products and systems.<br />
A vast amount of global investments in health research generated pool of<br />
knowledge that is underused and not translated rapidly enough into new health<br />
policies, products, services and outcomes. Knowledge translation has come at a time<br />
when the gap between what is known and what gets done (the known –do gap) is<br />
highlighted by shortfalls in equity and quality in health services.<br />
What does Knowledge translation stand <strong>for</strong>:<br />
Knowledge translation can be used as a noun or a verb. It is described a<br />
structured process that results in scientifically researched evidence being used to<br />
improve the outcomes of professional practice. Knowledge can be created without<br />
science and knowledge translation is not research; it moves from responding to<br />
curiosity to focusing on purpose and problems solving. It is defined as “ the<br />
synthesis, exchange and application of knowledge by relevant stakeholders to<br />
accelerate the benefits of global and local innovation in strengthening health systems<br />
and improving people’s health. Knowledge translation is about creating, transferring<br />
* Sr. Technical Asstt. NDC, NIHFW, Munirka, New Delhi10067. Sangitagupta2006@gmail.com<br />
** Librarian. , TCS, Gurgaon, Haryana, sneh.sharma@tcs.com<br />
*** IGNOU, Regional <strong>Centre</strong> Delhi1, 52 Tughlakabad, Institutional Area, New Delhi-110062,<br />
dutta_kavita07@yahoo.co.in<br />
68
and trans<strong>for</strong>ming knowledge from one social or organizational unit to another in a<br />
value-creating chain. The transfer of knowledge from one community or<br />
organizational unit to another usually faces five problems: knowledge access,<br />
knowledge incompleteness, knowledge asymmetry, knowledge valuation and<br />
knowledge incompatibility. Knowledge translation is distinguished by at least three<br />
features:<br />
a. Emphasizes the process of qualifying search evidence;<br />
b. Supports the flow of data and understanding from researcher to<br />
practitioner/ policy makers as well as the flow from practitioner/policy<br />
maker to researcher.<br />
c. Pertains to complex social and organizational contexts.<br />
While the term knowledge translation may appear similar to dissemination or<br />
diffusion, it can be differentiated by its emphasis on the quality of research prior to<br />
dissemination and implementation of research evidence into a system. Unlike simple<br />
dissemination activities, knowledge translation requires coordination and process<br />
improvement amongst a complex system. Knowledge translation involves the<br />
reporting, quality assessment and adaptation of research and development knowledge<br />
into an understandable and contextually relevant <strong>for</strong>m that reflects organization’s<br />
research and development priorities and that will be utilized by and benefit<br />
practitioner and consumers.<br />
Importance of Knowledge translation:<br />
Knowledge translation has emerged in response to the gap between evidence<br />
based research and its use / implementation by various stakeholders change in<br />
behaviors is usually the ultimate goal, but in practice the impact of knowledge<br />
translation is often much more suitable and long term.<br />
Knowledge Mapping and Knowledge translation:<br />
Knowledge mapping comprises a process, which provides an organization<br />
with a picture of the specific knowledge it needs in order to support its business<br />
processes. Knowledge mapping is an important practice consisting of survey, audit<br />
and synthesis. It aims to track the acquisition and loss of in<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge.<br />
It explores personal and group competencies and proficiencies. It illustrates or “maps”<br />
how knowledge flows throughout an organization. Knowledge mapping helps an<br />
organization to appreciate how the loss of staff influences intellectual capital, to assist<br />
with the selection of terms, and to match technology to knowledge needs and<br />
processes. We have got some key principles of knowledge mapping like:<br />
- Understand that knowledge is transient.<br />
- Explain the sanction, establish boundaries, and respect personal<br />
disclosures.<br />
- Recognize and locate knowledge in wide variety of <strong>for</strong>ms: tacit and<br />
explicit, <strong>for</strong>mal and in<strong>for</strong>mal, codified and personalized, internal and<br />
external, short life cycle and permanent.<br />
- Locate knowledge in processes, relationships, policies, people, documents,<br />
conversations, links and context, suppliers, competitors and customers.<br />
69
- Be aware of organizational level and aggregation, cultural issues and<br />
reward systems, timeliness, sharing and value, legal process and<br />
protection (patents, trade secrets, trade marks, NDAs)<br />
The internal knowledge mapping in a public health organization allows it to<br />
learn what it knows. It refers to the understanding and self awareness that an<br />
organization has with respect to its knowledge resources and their limitations. Internal<br />
knowledge is especially important because it is unique, specific to the organization,<br />
tacit and there<strong>for</strong>e difficult to reproduce by knowledge holders located outside the<br />
organization. On the other hand, external knowledge acquisition refers to a capability<br />
<strong>for</strong> external awareness, more specifically to the capacity <strong>for</strong> identifying and acquiring<br />
knowledge from external sources and making it suitable <strong>for</strong> subsequent use by the<br />
organization. Knowledge mapping and acquisition involve many specific capacities<br />
<strong>for</strong> example, locating, accessing, valuing, and filtering pertinent knowledge,<br />
extracting, collecting, distilling, refining, interpreting, packaging, and trans<strong>for</strong>ming<br />
the captured knowledge into usable knowledge; and transferring the usable knowledge<br />
within the organization <strong>for</strong> subsequent use in the problem solving. External<br />
knowledge may provide new ideas and contexts <strong>for</strong> benchmarking internal<br />
knowledge; this type of knowledge is more explicit and more costly to acquire but it<br />
is easily available from other similar public health organizations.<br />
With the help of results of the knowledge mapping we can look into the<br />
knowledge gap that may exist between what a public health organization has to know<br />
to implement its mandates and what it currently knows and this in<strong>for</strong>mation leads to<br />
one of three conclusions: 1. The organization has external knowledge gap if it does<br />
not know enough to implements its public health mandate; 2. The organization has<br />
external knowledge gap if it knows less than what other public health organization<br />
know in order to implement similar mandate; 3. The organization has knowledge gap<br />
it knows enough to implement its mandate or if it knows more than other public<br />
health organizations know in order to implement similar mandates.<br />
Knowledge mapping may rely on one of four organizational modes:<br />
undirected viewing, conditioned viewing, in<strong>for</strong>mal search and <strong>for</strong>mal search. In<br />
undirected viewing, a public health professional is exposed to in<strong>for</strong>mation, when he or<br />
she has no specific in<strong>for</strong>mational needs in mind. We can say this is an in<strong>for</strong>mal<br />
strategy that can be useful <strong>for</strong> the early detection of emerging problems. In<br />
conditioned viewing a public health professional directs his or her viewing on<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation regarding selected public health topics or issues. During the in<strong>for</strong>mal<br />
search process, a public health professional looks <strong>for</strong> in<strong>for</strong>mation that will improve<br />
his or her understanding of a specific public health issue. Finally, in a <strong>for</strong>mal search a<br />
public health professional engages in a systematic search <strong>for</strong> ideas, in<strong>for</strong>mation and<br />
knowledge about a specific health issue. This last mode includes conducting<br />
systematic reviews and external surveys as well as training and hiring employees (in<br />
order to bring knowledge into the organization).<br />
Knowledge creation is usually associated with research and development<br />
activities. Knowledge translation capability refers to the capacity to combine<br />
70
knowledge (tacit, internal and external) in order to develop new knowledge. It also<br />
includes activities such as solving a public health problem, devising a public health<br />
promotion strategy, discovering a pattern, developing a public health programme or<br />
intervention or conducting, monitoring, and evaluation activities. On the other hand,<br />
knowledge destruction frequently paves the way <strong>for</strong> knowledge creation and<br />
innovation. However, it is difficult to destroy old knowledge and replace it with the<br />
implementation of new knowledge (<strong>for</strong> example, replacing old clinical guidelines<br />
with new).<br />
Knowledge Integration:<br />
Knowledge integration is the capacity to trans<strong>for</strong>m a public health<br />
organization’s knowledge resources (tacit, explicit, individual, organizational,<br />
internal, external) into actionable knowledge by taking into account the organization’s<br />
strengths, weaknesses and opportunities as well as threats to the organization.<br />
Over the time, public health organizations learn to integrate the accumulated<br />
internal knowledge with knowledge acquired from other organizations or other<br />
external sources. Organizations integrate the knowledge accumulated over time,<br />
developing and delivering programmes, interventions and services using knowledge<br />
from external sources. However, integrating of raw knowledge into actionable<br />
knowledge is necessary but not sufficient to solve the public health problems;<br />
knowledge must also be shared and transferred. Knowledge sharing is more<br />
demanding than knowledge reporting. Reporting involves disseminating in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
through codified <strong>for</strong>mats to target groups within a public health organization. By<br />
contrast, sharing implies person-to-person interactions during which one individual<br />
convert his or her (individual and often tacit) knowledge into a <strong>for</strong>m that can be<br />
understood by other members in the organization. Knowledge sharing provides the<br />
mechanism to trans<strong>for</strong>m individual knowledge into organizational knowledge that can<br />
be redeployed to create value and solve problems at the organizational level.<br />
Knowledge sharing is a social process that may lead to the emergence of communities<br />
of practice. In public heath, such communities exist at the local, regional, national and<br />
international levels. We can say knowledge transfer complements knowledge sharing.<br />
While knowledge sharing is associated with an exchange of knowledge between<br />
individuals and knowledge exchange is associated with exchange knowledge between<br />
organizations or departments or divisions within the organizations. Knowledge that<br />
has been shared or transferred provides a template or guideline <strong>for</strong> decisions and<br />
actions. Knowledge replication is the capacity to identify the attributes of the<br />
knowledge that are replicable, how these attributes can be recreated and the<br />
characteristics of the contexts in which they can be replicated. But it is found that<br />
there are significant differences between the attributes of the knowledge and the<br />
contexts of the action and decisions described in the templates and guidelines, and a<br />
real public health context. So, knowledge replication must be guided by the attributes<br />
of the local context of actions and decisions, especially with respect to public health.<br />
The capacity to replicate knowledge improves the efficacy and efficiency of public<br />
health programmes and interventions. However, many legal mechanisms of<br />
knowledge protection like patent, copyright, trademarks etc. restrict use of knowledge<br />
replication. To what extent knowledge replication has been able to give desired results<br />
and outputs, it should be assessed by knowledge per<strong>for</strong>mance. Assessments are based<br />
on perspectives like a) Value <strong>for</strong> money- investments in the creation, sharing and<br />
71
application of knowledge providing public health benefits; b) knowledge users -the<br />
extent to which evidence based professional practices contribute to the development<br />
of new products and services to improve them; c) Final beneficiaries of knowledge<br />
translation -the extent to which evidence based professional practices are translated<br />
into new improved products and services; d) internal organizational process- public<br />
health organizations must have an account of processes to achieve superior<br />
knowledge sharing, transfer, replication in order to achieve superior outcomes <strong>for</strong> the<br />
public.<br />
CONCLUSION<br />
The gap between what we know and what we practice i.e. know-do gap exist<br />
in public health organizations. Knowledge translation is also on important measure to<br />
bridge the gap between knowledge and action <strong>for</strong> health. It is hoped that public health<br />
organizations in developing countries will try to invest more resources in prompting<br />
measures like- knowledge translation, knowledge management to narrow the gap as<br />
well as develop a culture where decisions taken by policy-makers, health professional<br />
and the public are based on evidence.<br />
REFERENCES<br />
1. Holsapple C W, Joshi KD. Knowledge, manipulation activities: results of a<br />
Delphi study. Introduction and Management 2002; 28: 265-84.<br />
2. Lee C C, Yang J. Knowledge – value chain. Journal of Management<br />
Development. 2000; 19: 783-93.<br />
3. Ipe M. Knowledge sharing is organizations; a conceptual framework. Human<br />
<strong>Research</strong> Development Review. 2003; 2: 227-59.<br />
4. Landry Rejean, Amara Nabil. The knowledge – value chain: a conceptual<br />
framework <strong>for</strong> knowledge translation in India. Bulletin of the World Health<br />
Organization.2006; 84(8): 597-602.<br />
5. Ebener S, Khan A. Knowledge mapping as a technique to support knowledge.<br />
Bulletin of the World Health Organization.2006; 84(8): 636-42.<br />
72
Fire Detection System: A Device <strong>for</strong> document<br />
preservation in a Library Environment: Guidance <strong>for</strong><br />
Selection to Installation of an Ideal System<br />
J.V.M.Joseph*, M.Pandurangam* and M.Somasekharan*<br />
Abstract<br />
This paper discusses about the implication and hazards of fire in Libraries / Archives and<br />
explains about the necessary preventive measures to be taken. It stresses about the importance of<br />
installation of an ideal Automatic Fire Detection and Alarming System in libraries and archives <strong>for</strong><br />
early detection and prevention. Describes detail about the various components comprising of Fire<br />
Detection & Alarm System. It provides necessary guidelines to the selection and installation of an ideal<br />
Fire Alarm System. Also discusses about the pros and cons of Beam Detectors. Finally, Software<br />
Interface and Network Issues are explained.<br />
1. INTRODUCTION<br />
Safety and Security of Archives and Libraries: The prime activity of In<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
Security is the Physical Protection of Documents. The Dictionary meaning of safety is<br />
the freedom from loss or risk and security means the thing that guards or guarantees.<br />
In the context of physical records is free from losses or risks. If a document crumbles<br />
due to any reason, it is a permanent loss to the repository / the nation and the world as<br />
well. Safety and Security measures are to be strictly adhered to safe guard the<br />
documentary heritage from the losses against natural calamities like flood, earthquake<br />
and fire. Hence the safety and security of archives and libraries are concerns in<br />
preservation of documentary wealth.<br />
Fire: Fire is responsible of complete annihilation of documentary wealth and<br />
there<strong>for</strong>e, is necessary to prevent it. The nature of material housed in libraries and<br />
archives is mostly inflammable and even a single spark may completely burn the<br />
house. There<strong>for</strong>e, it is essential to take care of documentary wealth of unique nature<br />
from fire. In order to take preventive measures, the following strategies are to be<br />
followed<br />
Prevention Strategies: While planning strategies against fire, it should guarantee <strong>for</strong><br />
no outbreak of fire in archival repository or where documentary wealth is housed.<br />
Even it breaks due to any reason the Libraries and Archives must be in full<br />
preparedness to control it immediately be<strong>for</strong>e any loss occurs to the wealth.<br />
The following preventive measures will save the documentary wealth.<br />
a. First and <strong>for</strong>emost activity of prevention is the complete prohibition of<br />
smoking practices in library and archive buildings.<br />
b. Secondly, a special wiring system, negating short circuiting should be<br />
adopted.<br />
c. Thirdly, all the possible points causing short circuit in the electrical wiring<br />
should be avoided.<br />
d. Fourthly, sufficient fire fighting aids should be stockpiled in the vicinity of<br />
respective buildings to meet any challenge of fire.<br />
* SIRD, <strong>Indira</strong> <strong>Gandhi</strong> <strong>Centre</strong> <strong>for</strong> <strong>Atomic</strong> <strong>Research</strong>,Kalpakkam, Tamilnadu –603102<br />
Email: joe@igcar.gov.in<br />
73
By implementing these strategies, there is no guarantee to achieve full protection to<br />
the documents. But we can ensure the fullest precautionary measures to prevent. In<br />
order to meet this precaution of fire, Fire Detection is to be made.<br />
2. DETECTION OF FIRE<br />
Timely detection of fire detection by using proper transducer to sense the different<br />
types of smoke and temperature facilitates in effective control of it.<br />
Fire Detection and Alarm System: Fire Detection and Alarm System is electronic<br />
equipment which detects fire and raises alarm as warning of fire. Fire, generates<br />
smoke, heat and light and all the three parameters have been used <strong>for</strong> the detection of<br />
fire. Different types of Detectors sense the smoke and heat using different techniques<br />
depending upon the location and probable nature of fire. Typically a cooking place<br />
will have a special type of heat detection mechanism rather than simple smoke<br />
detection. The significance of all the detection system is that they raise alarm just<br />
after the outbreak of fire. The physical guidance system to location of fire is provided<br />
by the indicator panel of the system which shows or displays the exact location of the<br />
place where fire has broken.<br />
Fire Alarm Systems are classified as Conventional and Addressable. A system may<br />
have many numbers of loops and a loop may have different types of sensors and<br />
devices. The advantages of Addressable Systems are: All sensors devices and loops<br />
are uniquely addressed by a number. This feature provides exact geographical<br />
location of fire or faulty device or sensor. The address of senor/device can have<br />
detailed in<strong>for</strong>mation which can be displayed on the panel where as the conventional<br />
system can only indicates loop number /(s) and not the exact location of the physical<br />
identification number of devices or sensors.<br />
Analogue Addressable Fire Alarm System: The major components of fire alarm<br />
system are the panel, sensors and devices. The fire alarm panel is a microprocessor<br />
based system which controls all the loops and interface ports <strong>for</strong> various devices and<br />
systems. Each loop consists of local memory and interface modules to interact with<br />
devices and is controlled by a micro controller.<br />
Fig-1: Front panel<br />
Fig-2: Cabling layout<br />
3. FIRE ALARM DEVICES<br />
The fire alarm system can accommodate various devices and sensors. Manual Call<br />
Points, Isolators, Hooters and Response Indicators are treated as devices and other<br />
74
sensing devices are named as sensors / detectors. The following are the various types<br />
of Smoke sensors / detectors.<br />
1. Ionization Smoke Detector<br />
2. Photoelectric Smoke Detector<br />
3. Optical Smoke Detectors. And<br />
4. Beam Detector<br />
Ionization Smoke Detectors:<br />
Detectors sense the smoke arising out of<br />
the bursting of fire is known as ionization<br />
smoke detectors. In the event of fire, some<br />
materials in Libraries and Archives may<br />
generate or release a large amount of solid<br />
particles, as constituent particles of<br />
smoke, in the atmosphere. These types of<br />
detectors are ideal <strong>for</strong> Libraries and<br />
Archives.<br />
Fig-3: Ionization Smoke Detectors<br />
Heat Detectors: Heat Detector ideally suited to locations where high sensitivity is<br />
required <strong>for</strong> change in heat and where smoke detectors are found unsuitable <strong>for</strong><br />
detection of fire. Generally, smoke detectors, do not work efficiently in the places<br />
where material stores and produces little smoke in the initial stage of out breaking of<br />
fire or where adverse environmental conditions are prevailing.<br />
Optical Smoke Detectors:<br />
An optical smoke detector<br />
includes a light source<br />
(infra-red LED) and a<br />
photodiode or other<br />
photoelectric sensor at<br />
right-angles to the light<br />
beam. In the absence of<br />
smoke, the light passes in<br />
front of the detector in a<br />
straight line and light<br />
sensor does not get any<br />
light.<br />
Fig-4: Optical Smoke Detectors<br />
When the smoke enters into optical chamber, that is the path of the light beam, some<br />
light is scattered by the smoke particles, and same is detected by the sensor. These<br />
75
detectors are suitable <strong>for</strong> detecting fire in the place where materials stored generate<br />
smoke just be<strong>for</strong>e the out break of fire.<br />
Beam Detectors: A Beam Detector consists of a transmitter and receiver and operates<br />
in line of sight. The system has a separate alarm and trouble signals which distinguish<br />
between a percentage of signal blockage and a total beam block. Beam Detector is<br />
uniquely suitable <strong>for</strong> protecting open areas with high ceilings where conventional spot<br />
type smoke detectors are difficult to install and maintain. Typically, this type of<br />
Detectors is suitable <strong>for</strong> Auditorium, Garage or Warehouse.<br />
Other Devices:<br />
1. Manual Call Point: Manual Call Point is a device meant <strong>for</strong> human beings<br />
to operate in the event of visual fire or smoke where the sensors failed or<br />
delayed to operate. MCP is also interfaced with the main fire alarm system.<br />
Typically these devices are installed near the exit door / corridor / staircase.<br />
2. Isolator: An Isolator Device will detect short-circuit and isolates the shortcircuited<br />
segment from a loop. When the faulty sensor(s) removed or<br />
replaced the isolator will return to normal operation.<br />
3. Response Indicator: Response Indicator is a Light Emitting Diode (LED),<br />
which indicates the status of the corresponding sensor. Normally these<br />
indicators are fitted outside the closed rooms, so that the person can ascertain<br />
the status in the event of alarm condition. This reduces the time consumption<br />
while searching <strong>for</strong> the doubtful location.<br />
4. Hooter or Sounder: Hooter or Sounder is a device powered by the loop<br />
supply and does not require any separate power to activate. If the volume is<br />
insufficient separate power unit can be attached. Generally the device is<br />
designed such that the current consumption is low with high volume and no<br />
additional power supply is required.<br />
4. GENERAL GUIDELINES<br />
1. Factors involved in Selection of an Ideal System:<br />
a. Assessment: Assessment has to be made with respect to the area to be<br />
covered, layout of the building, types of material housed. In this aspect,<br />
engagement of a professional in the field especially from the Industry is most<br />
advisable so that the exact quantity and type of detectors can be technically<br />
assessed.<br />
b. Fire Alarm Panel: Selection factors like number of Detectors and Devices<br />
should be taken into consideration. Each loop card should support addressable<br />
devices (Detector, Isolator, Hooter, Indicators). Normally, an ideal panel<br />
should be capable of having 99 Detectors and 99 Devices per loop. The panel<br />
should be able to accommodate enough number of loops to cover the building<br />
and the future expansion. Hence there shall be provision <strong>for</strong> sufficient number<br />
of loops.<br />
76
The system having the following features are to be considered.<br />
i) Loop capacity can be expandable<br />
ii) Minimum198 devices per loop (99 Sensors + 99 Devices like<br />
Isolator, Manual Call Point, Response Indicator etc.)<br />
iii) No. of Zones per Panel – More No. of Zones is Good<br />
iv) Modular design<br />
v) Graphical display and control system<br />
vi) Multi-Protocol<br />
vii) Supports advanced detection<br />
viii) More Levels of sensitivity<br />
ix) “Auto Learn” Facility<br />
x) Network option<br />
xi) Programmable from the Panel Keypad or PC<br />
xii) LCD Display<br />
xiii) Degraded mode of operation<br />
xiv) Variety of mounting option<br />
xv) Flexible time programming<br />
xvi) Supports loop powered sounders and switching relays<br />
xvii) Ease of maintenance<br />
xviii) Easy expandable<br />
xix) Provision <strong>for</strong> network connectivity<br />
xx) Easy to install<br />
xxi) Easy to configure<br />
xxii) Easy operation<br />
c. Sensors: The following features are to be ensured.<br />
i) Direct Decade Addressing<br />
ii) Electronic Addressing<br />
iii) LEDs <strong>for</strong> 360 degree visual alarm indication<br />
iv) Easy cleaning access<br />
v) Very low activity chamber (Ionization sensors)<br />
vi) Single plug-in installation with electronics-free base<br />
vii) Local magnet test facility<br />
viii) Tamper resistant facility<br />
ix) Sleek Low-Profile design<br />
x) Common Base <strong>for</strong> Ionisation, Heat and Optical Sensors<br />
xi) Addressable -Analogue Communication<br />
xii) Stable Communication Technique with Noise immunity.<br />
xiii) Low Standby Current<br />
xiv) Rotary Decade 01 to 99 Address Switches<br />
xv) Remote LED Output as Standard<br />
xvi) Dual LED Design provides 360 degree viewing Angle<br />
xvii) Visible LEDs Blink Every Time the Detector is Addressed<br />
(Optional), and Illuminate Steady On Alarm<br />
xviii) Built-in Functional Test Switch<br />
xix) Optional Relay, Isolator, or Sounder Bases<br />
d. Associated (Optional) Devices:<br />
i) Repeater Panel<br />
ii) Fault Isolator Device<br />
77
iii)<br />
Response Indicator<br />
II.<br />
Confirmation to one or more Indian and International Standards:<br />
The above Panel and Sensors shall have the approvals of any one of the<br />
International Standard Specifications along with Indian Standard<br />
Specification indicated below:<br />
• ISI (BUREAU OF INDIAN STANDARDS), India<br />
• LPCB (Loss Prevention Certification Board), UK<br />
• EN54 – British Standard<br />
• UL (UNDERWRITERS LABORATORIES, USA)<br />
• ULC (UNDERWRITERS LABORATORIES, CANADA)<br />
• BS-5839 (British Standard)<br />
• CE – CE Mark <strong>for</strong> European Standards & Regulations<br />
• Vds (Verband der Sachversicherer e.v) Germany<br />
• CSFM – Cali<strong>for</strong>nia State Fire Marshall<br />
III.<br />
Cables, Conduits & Accessories: The following specified technical<br />
specifications should be followed during Installation.<br />
• 2 Core (1.5 sq.mm) Multistrand shielded copper cable having<br />
aluminum braid around is highly suitable<br />
• 1 Inch MS Conduit pipes are to be used on the walls is to be ensured.<br />
For easy identification among other conduits it is better to have<br />
uni<strong>for</strong>m colored pipes preferably Red throughout the building.<br />
IV.<br />
UPS: The main panel and the sub-systems should be powered through<br />
Uninterrupted Power Supply unit (UPS). The power rating and backup<br />
time should be ensured with at least one hour.<br />
V. Battery Power: In case of loss of mains power, the power supply unit shall<br />
automatically get change over to battery power which is rated suitably.<br />
VI.<br />
VII.<br />
Output Facilities: The control unit shall have necessary built-in Interface<br />
to Connect different types of printers.<br />
Spares:<br />
Purposes: The Spares in sufficient quantities are to be stored due to the<br />
following reasons:<br />
1. Easy replacement<br />
2. One or two nos. to extend in the loop / zone.<br />
3. To meet the obsolescence of the component<br />
These spares include Sensors, Loop Card, Communication Card, etc.<br />
78
2. Selection of Vendor:<br />
The following criteria are to be considered while selecting the proper<br />
vendor <strong>for</strong> assigning the contract.<br />
• Reputation and Reliability of the Company<br />
• Previous Installations done in various places<br />
• Trade Mark / Make dealt with shall be reputable and worldwide. This<br />
can be assessed by enquiring with the persons using the system<br />
• Standards and per<strong>for</strong>mance of the Company<br />
• Quality of Service<br />
• Easy maintenance and cost effective<br />
• Timely Delivery and Installation of the System at the customer’s site<br />
• Periodical Maintenance of the system should be assured by the supplier<br />
• Training to the Person(s) <strong>for</strong> operating the System be given by the<br />
Supplier<br />
• Assurance from the Supplier to supply of spares etc. <strong>for</strong> at least next<br />
15 years.<br />
• Last but not least, the Supplier should provide the Documentation of<br />
the System regarding Layout, Cables routings etc. installed at the site<br />
<strong>for</strong> Reference and Records.<br />
Software Interface and Network: The Software should have the features to identify<br />
the location and healthiness of the sensors and other devices. Since the software and<br />
communication protocols are following the standards, the capabilities also permit to<br />
monitor other network of the fire alarm systems (supports different vendors of fire<br />
alarm system). The email option enables the user to get up-to-date in<strong>for</strong>mation and<br />
healthiness of the system with time stamp. In case of fire, the voice alarm navigates<br />
the users with the pre-recorded audio in<strong>for</strong>mation and the users need not visit the<br />
main control panel.<br />
Fig-4: Screen shot of monitoring software<br />
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5. CONCLUSION<br />
Present day libraries are mostly Hybrid Libraries which contains both print and<br />
electronic documents, to safe-guard these valuable and multi type materials, it is<br />
highly essential to install an Automatic Fire Detection and Alarm System in any<br />
library or in archives which ultimately safe-guards the Nation’s heritage and wealth.<br />
It is advised not to use water sprinklers and use only fire fighting equipment which is<br />
fitted in a library environment. It is also suggested that one Repeater Panel should be<br />
installed near the Security Area of the main building to take immediate action by the<br />
security personnel in case of emergency. Finally, the training of staff members<br />
should be ensured with proper training with operational documents to enable them to<br />
meet the emergency needs. Following the above guidelines and suggestions along<br />
with a highly reliable Fire Safety System, the archives can be protected from fire<br />
which ultimately meets the total document preservation.<br />
REFERENCE<br />
1. Fire detection and fire alarm systems (CEN/TC 72)<br />
2. Fire detection and fire alarm systems - Part 21: Alarm transmission and fault warning<br />
routing equipment :EN 54-21:2006<br />
3. Fire detection and fire alarm systems - Part 3: Fire alarm devices - Sounders :EN 54-<br />
3:2001<br />
4. Fire detection and fire alarm systems - Components <strong>for</strong> fire alarm voice alarm systems -<br />
Part 16: Voice alarm control and indicating equipment : prEN 54-16<br />
5. Fire detection and fire alarm systems - Part 7: Smoke detectors - Point detectors using<br />
scattered light, transmitted light or ionization : EN 54-7:2000<br />
6. Smoke alarm devices : EN 14604:2005<br />
7. IS No. SP 7:2005 National Building Code of India 2005<br />
8. Class 2 ignitability as per IS 125612 (Part 1).<br />
9. Class 1 ignitability as per IS 15612 (Part 1).<br />
80
Document Management, Resource Generation &<br />
Preservation of Scientific Source Materials in Physics<br />
and Allied Fields: A Special Reference to SINP<br />
A.K. Saha*, B.K. Mallick*, D. Dasgupta* and P. Das *<br />
Abstract<br />
An archive of a Scientific <strong>Research</strong> Institute preserves and disseminates in<strong>for</strong>mation related to the<br />
scientific works of a scientist and documents on his personal life and other areas of his interest. This paper<br />
indicates what type of source materials we, at SINP, can provide to the scholars of history of science and<br />
how to preserve these materials. As these documents help to develop history of science, it requires proper<br />
care and guidance.<br />
A scientist usually seeks computational tools or experimental setups that open up new areas of<br />
investigation. Historians, on the other hand, look <strong>for</strong> letters, diaries, notebooks, and in<strong>for</strong>mal reports to<br />
know the personality of a scientist, and to capture the dynamics involved in his scientific works. Like other<br />
pioneer academic institutions, SINP is also developing its own resourceful archives which will preserve<br />
different types of documents like Institute’s historical development, research activities including life and<br />
works of its founder, the eminent scientist Prof. Meghnad Saha. The paper describes the modern techniques<br />
and technologies which are being used in this archive <strong>for</strong> document management, resource generation and<br />
well preservation of scientific as well as non-scientific data. SINP is also trying to set up a system to share<br />
its resources with the academics of the world.<br />
1. INTRODUCTION<br />
Awareness <strong>for</strong> preservation of our heritage has grown tremendously and archives<br />
nowadays have become an essential part in this regard. History of science is an<br />
interesting area of study to many of scientists. That is why archivists collect, appraise and<br />
preserve documents and materials found in manuscripts, video photography, still<br />
photographs, oral history recordings and literary correspondence.<br />
The Meghnad Saha Archives of Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics was set up in<br />
September 15, 2003 and started functioning from January 2004 to trace and record the<br />
history and development of SINP since the time of Prof M N Saha. The unit is yet in a<br />
nascent stage. This archive is primarily based on unpublished as well as published<br />
documents on Prof Saha and his brain-child, the Institute of Nuclear Physics, renamed as<br />
the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics after his demise.<br />
A scientific archive purports to collect, preserve and disseminate in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
regarding the history of the institute and the history of science as well. So does the SINP<br />
Archive also. This archive is not much old to become a full-fledged facility, but the work<br />
of organization is going on sincerely in full swing. After some time this archive will<br />
become an indispensable part <strong>for</strong> the study of history of science.<br />
* Publication & Documentation Unit, Saha Institute of Nuclear PhysicsI/AF, Bidhan Nagar, Kolkata-<br />
700064, amit.saha@saha.ac.in<br />
81
The objective of the archives is:<br />
1. To collect and preserve (both in digital and print <strong>for</strong>ms) various published<br />
and unpublished writings of Prof M N Saha;<br />
2. Documents so far published on Prof Saha (Newspaper cuttings, Articles,<br />
Photographs, testimonials);<br />
3. Documents relating to Saha Memorial Lectures, Colloquium Materials,<br />
prestigious achievements by fellows/staff members, important events and<br />
celebrations;<br />
4. To present the essentials of the SINP archives through our website.<br />
2. COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT<br />
The job of an archivist starts from collection development and proceeds to a<br />
dissemination of in<strong>for</strong>mation.<br />
The multifaceted genius like Prof M N Saha was not only associated with science<br />
but also with different activities important to the country. He was a Parliamentarian,<br />
acted on several occasions in the capacity of Chairman of different important committees.<br />
All records related to him, there<strong>for</strong>e, have an immense importance to the mankind.<br />
The archive has been able to collect a good amount of unpublished writings,<br />
correspondence, photographs and sketches etc from his close associates, family members<br />
and students. In this regard mention should be made of people like Prof. A K Saha, Dr.<br />
Prasenjit Saha, Dr. Chitra Roy and Dr. Santimay Chatterjee. Dr. D H DeVorkin of the<br />
Department of History of Science, Smithsonian Institution, Cali<strong>for</strong>nia, also provided us<br />
with copies of important materials. We received a good number of documents also from<br />
the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi, the custodian of the original<br />
Meghnad Saha Papers. Dr. Prasenjit Saha, the youngest son of Prof M N Saha has been a<br />
great help in enriching our collection.<br />
Records are broadly of two categories – scientific and private. The scientific<br />
documents include articles written by Prof M N Saha in ‘Nature’, ‘Science and Culture’,<br />
letters written to and by Prof M N Saha, ‘Biographical note on M N Saha’ written by D S<br />
Kothari, list of publications of Prof Saha in scientific journals and elsewhere,<br />
photographs and other documents relating to Prof Saha. To date, the unit has collected<br />
copies of as many as 2000 letters written to and by Prof M N Saha. So far the document<br />
holdings comprise 22 volumes, arranged in alphabetic order of the correspondents. Of<br />
these 22 volumes, 18 volumes are complete with catalogue, summary and, whenever<br />
necessary, English translations of letters. A good part of this collection has already been<br />
digitalized. Some personal articles of Prof Saha also constitute a valuable asset of this<br />
archive.<br />
82
3. ORGANISATION OF DATABASE<br />
The advent of digital documents and development of electronic database has<br />
greatly facilitated the task of maintaining documents and accessing in<strong>for</strong>mation on<br />
documents. Valuable archival documents require special management skill. Technologybased<br />
organization and retrieval of in<strong>for</strong>mation is stated below.<br />
Scanning of documents is done by using the latest high speed scanner. OCR<br />
version 8.0 is also used <strong>for</strong> easy and exhaustive retrieval of in<strong>for</strong>mation. Presently we are<br />
using the following scanners:<br />
1. HP Scanjet 5590<br />
2. HP Scanjet 4400c<br />
3. Minolta 7222<br />
4. UMAX Power look 2100XL<br />
Editing of the scanned material is done by using Adobe Photoshop CS2 version.<br />
We are using the following software <strong>for</strong> editing video file and pdf file:<br />
1. Adobe Premier version 1.5<br />
2. Adobe Writer Professional version 7.0<br />
We have a good number of PCs, the indispensable unit of modern archive with<br />
huge Hard Disk capacity and RAM and a server as well.<br />
Abstracting and indexing of documents are also going on simultaneously. We<br />
adopt International Standards <strong>for</strong> cataloguing and classification of knowledge and base<br />
the document organization on the AACR2 and UDC Schemes <strong>for</strong> classification.<br />
The job of hyper linking the documents is going on to make it ready <strong>for</strong> retrieval<br />
through web page.<br />
We organize and typeset our Annual Report all by ourselves. Only large scale<br />
printing <strong>for</strong> distribution purpose is got done by printing press. From Annual Report data<br />
input to the printable version everything is fully computerized using our in house<br />
software development.<br />
4. STORAGE & PRESERVATION<br />
Process controlled storage facility is the key word of an archive. We maintain 70°<br />
F temperature and 40٪ humidity to store all this valuable documents.<br />
We are preserving the processed digital documents in two CDs and in one Hard<br />
Disk keeping in view the safety and security. Original documents are always kept in safe<br />
83
custody and two copies are made <strong>for</strong> regular use. All are preserve properly by applying<br />
pesticides at regular interval.<br />
1. We are using TRAY Cabinet <strong>for</strong> sketches, photographs, posters, and valuable<br />
newspaper cuttings etc<br />
2. Valuable published and unpublished document like books, journals are kept in<br />
compactor <strong>for</strong> proper storage and maintenance<br />
3. Very old and partly damaged documents are kept after proper processing and<br />
lamination.<br />
Depending upon the quality of the original document we have digitalized the<br />
articles and stored both in Hard Disk and back up CD-Rom. We maintain a separate<br />
sequence <strong>for</strong> the document usually consulted by the users and archive copies are kept in a<br />
fire protected safe location to avoid mutilation and rough handling. The original<br />
photographs and scanned images are kept separately.<br />
5. RETRIEVAL<br />
Process <strong>for</strong> procurement of software <strong>for</strong> managing our database and to retrieve<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation is on the cards. By using this software, online access to the document up to<br />
summary level will be facilitated after completion of the first phase of database<br />
preparation. Retrieval can now be made mostly at personal levels.<br />
However, the Annual Report <strong>for</strong> the years 2002-05 are available both in the web<br />
and print versions.<br />
A few photographs and testimonials on Prof Saha are also available on the website.<br />
6. FUTURE PLAN<br />
1. The archive is planning to digitalize all the past Annual Reports of the<br />
institute and other publications (theses, journal publication, reports etc.) of<br />
SINP.<br />
2. We have a future programme of exhibiting valuable archival materials round<br />
the year.<br />
3. The archives is trying to build up a departmental library comprising books and<br />
other documents by and on Meghnad Saha.<br />
4. Recordings of oral history is also in our future plan<br />
Apart from this, we also arrange conferences, seminars, lectures and poster<br />
presentations. The following are some of these activities.<br />
84
1. A lecture titled “From Attic to Archives: the making of the TIFR Archives”<br />
was delivered by Dr. <strong>Indira</strong> Chowdhury, Archivist of TIFR on December..,<br />
2006<br />
2. A lecture delivered by Dr Subhayu Chattopadhyay, Department of History,<br />
Visvabharati University; the title was “Science, Nationalism and Colonial<br />
Contestations: P.N.Bose and Indian Geology”.<br />
3. A poster presentation titled “A Tale of Two Giants (Prof Meghnad Saha and<br />
Prof H N Russell)” was arranged on the occasion of Science Day<br />
Celebration, <strong>2007</strong> in SINP Auditorium.<br />
We are going to arrange the following events in the near future<br />
1. A poster presentation entitled “Saha and Freedom Movement of India”<br />
2. A National Symposium on “History of Indian Science and Technology: Pre<br />
and Post Independence Era” in the month of September/October, <strong>2007</strong>.<br />
7. CONCLUSION<br />
We cannot ignore our past, <strong>for</strong> the present and future build upon it. Scientific<br />
research is a continuous process and it goes <strong>for</strong>ward basing on the knowledge of their<br />
predecessors. An archive provides this connection. SINP archive is also moving in this<br />
direction. We take inspiration and guidance from every instance to help us go <strong>for</strong>ward <strong>for</strong><br />
a better future. Every institution or organization has its own history of development<br />
which paves the way. Only an archive can make alive and preserve this colorful world of<br />
the past. Considering these, our ultimate goal is to make a digitalized modern scientific<br />
archive which will be most helpful to all the researchers and users of physics as well as<br />
the members of the general science community.<br />
8. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT<br />
We are thankful to our Director <strong>for</strong> giving us the opportunity/responsibility <strong>for</strong><br />
such a noble job and to Prof. Atri Mukhopadhyay, <strong>for</strong>mer Chairman, P&D Committee <strong>for</strong><br />
his guidance. We are also thankful to Prof ANS Iyenger, present Chairman, P&D<br />
Committee <strong>for</strong> his encouragement.<br />
REFERENCE<br />
1. Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics Biennial Report, 2002-04<br />
2. Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics Annual Report, 2004-05<br />
3. SINP Turns Fifty (1950-2000), the Golden Jubilee Commemoration volume, Ed.<br />
A Mukhopadhyay, SINP, 2002<br />
4. NARA Guidelines <strong>for</strong> Digitizing Archival Materials <strong>for</strong> Electronic Access.<br />
5. Richard J Cox, Managing Institutional Archives: Foundational Principles and<br />
Practices, (1992)<br />
6. Candy Schwartz and Peter Hernon, Records Management and the Library: Issues<br />
and Practices (1993)<br />
85
DIGITAL PRESERVATION ISSUES AND FALLACIES IN<br />
DIGITAL ERA<br />
K.Vinitha * , Dr.S.Kanthimathi ** , Dr. S.Sampath Kumar**, & K.Tharani ***<br />
1. INTRODUCTION<br />
The rate of change in computer technology shows that in<strong>for</strong>mation can be<br />
inaccessible within a decade, Preservation is there<strong>for</strong>e an immediate issue <strong>for</strong> digital<br />
resources than <strong>for</strong> traditional. Digital resources will need Pro-active Preservation.<br />
Digital Preservation is defined as Long term, error-free storage of Digital<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation, with means <strong>for</strong> retrieval and interpretation <strong>for</strong> the entire time span that<br />
the in<strong>for</strong>mation is required <strong>for</strong> Digitization refers to the conversion of non-digital<br />
material to digital <strong>for</strong>m (i.e. a <strong>for</strong>m which uses a binary numerical code to represent<br />
variables).<br />
According to a recent statement from the council on library and in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
resources “Digital Preservation refers to the various methods of keeping digital<br />
materials alive into the future”. Digital preservation typically centers on the choice of<br />
interim storage media the life expectancy of a digital imaging system, and the<br />
expectation to migrate the digital files to future systems while maintaining both the<br />
full functionality and the integrity of the original digital system.<br />
The goal of digital preservation is to maintain the ability to display, retrieve<br />
and use digital collections in the face of rapidly changing technological organizational<br />
infra structures and elements. In the digital era,” Preservation is the creation of digital<br />
products worth maintaining over time”.<br />
2. ARCHIVE/DIGITAL REPOSITORY<br />
Digital Repository as well as Archive when referring to an organization that<br />
intends to preserve in<strong>for</strong>mation <strong>for</strong> access and use by the user community others<br />
prefer the term digital repository instead. Archives/Digital repository should not be<br />
confused with either digital libraries, which collect and provides access to digital<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation, but may not commit to its long- term preservation, or data archives,<br />
which do include long term preservation but limit their collections to statistical data’s.<br />
3. DIGITAL PRESERVATION STRATEGIES<br />
Many digital preservation strategies have been proposed, but no one strategy is<br />
appropriate <strong>for</strong> all data types, situations, or institutions.<br />
Bit stream copying: Bit stream copying is more commonly known as “backing up<br />
your data,” and refers to the process of making an exact duplicate of a digital object.<br />
Refreshing: Refreshing means copying in<strong>for</strong>mation without changing it, offers a<br />
short-term solution <strong>for</strong> preserving access to digital material by ensuring that<br />
* Librarian, National Engg. College, (TN)<br />
** <strong>Research</strong> Guide<br />
*** Dr. Sivanthi Adithanar college of Engg.(TN)<br />
86
in<strong>for</strong>mation is stored on newer media be<strong>for</strong>e the old media deteriorates beyond the<br />
point at which the in<strong>for</strong>mation can be retrieved.<br />
Durable/ Persistent media: It may reduce the need <strong>for</strong> refreshing, and help<br />
diminish losses from media deterioration, as do careful handling, controlled<br />
temperature and humidity, and proper storage. Durable media has the potential <strong>for</strong><br />
endangering content by providing a false sense of security. (i.e., Gold CDs).<br />
Technology preservation: technology preservation is based on preserving the<br />
technical environment that runs the systems,. Including operating systems, original<br />
application software and media drives. It is sometimes called the “computer museum”<br />
solution maintaining obsolete technology in usable <strong>for</strong>m requires a considerable<br />
investment in equipment and personnel.<br />
Digital Archaeology: Includes methods and procedure to rescue content from<br />
damaged media or from obsolete or damaged hardware and software environments.<br />
Given enough money, readable bit streams can be often be recovered even from<br />
heavily damaged media (especially Magnetic media), but if the content is old<br />
enough, it may not be possible to make it render able and/ or understandable.<br />
Analog backups: Analog backup combines the conversion of digital objects into<br />
analog <strong>for</strong>m with the use of durable analog media, e.g. HD Rosetta or the creation of<br />
silver halide microfilm from digital images. Text and monochromatic still images are<br />
the most amenable to this kind of transfer. Given the cost and limitations of analog<br />
backups, and their relevance to only certain classes of documents, the technique only<br />
makes sense <strong>for</strong> documents whose contents merit the highest level of redundancy and<br />
protection from loss.<br />
Migration: Migration means to copy data, or convert data, from one technology to<br />
another, whether hardware or software, preserving the essential characteristics of the<br />
data, the purpose of migration is to preserve the integrity of digital objects and to<br />
retain the ability <strong>for</strong> clients to retrieve, display, and otherwise use them in the face of<br />
constantly changing technology.<br />
Replication: The term is used to mean multiple things. Bit stream copying is a<br />
<strong>for</strong>m of replication. OAS (Open Access System) considers replication to be a <strong>for</strong>m of<br />
migration.<br />
Reliance on standards: Reliance on standard may lessen the immediate threat to a<br />
digital document from obsolescence, but it is no more a permanent preservation<br />
solution than the use of Gold CD or stone tablets.<br />
Normalization: Normalization converted into a single chosen file <strong>for</strong>mat that is<br />
thought to embody the best overall compromise amongst characteristics such as<br />
functionality, longevity, and resolvability. The advantages and disadvantages of<br />
reliance on standards also apply to normalization.<br />
Canonicalization: Canonicalization is a technique designed to allow determination<br />
of whether the essential characteristics of a document have remained intact through a<br />
conversion <strong>for</strong>m one <strong>for</strong>mat to another.<br />
Emulation: combines software and hardware to reproduce in all essential<br />
characteristics the per<strong>for</strong>mance of another computer of a different design, allowing<br />
programs or media designed <strong>for</strong> a particular environment to operate in a different,<br />
usually newer environment. Emulation requires the creation of emulators, programs<br />
that translate code and instructions <strong>for</strong>m one computing environment so it can be<br />
properly executed in another.<br />
Encapsulation: Encapsulation may be seen as a technique of grouping together a<br />
digital object and metadata necessary to provide access to that object appropriate<br />
types of metadata to encapsulate with a digital object include reference,<br />
87
epresentation, provenance, fixity and context in<strong>for</strong>mation. Encapsulation is<br />
considered a key element of emulation.<br />
Universal Virtual Computer (UVC): The concept of Universal Virtual computer<br />
was developed by Raymond Lorie. It uses elements of both migration and emulation<br />
which allows digital objects to be reconstituted in their original <strong>for</strong>m. The UVC<br />
concept consists of the UVC itself, a logical data scheme with type description, the<br />
UVC program (<strong>for</strong>mat decoder) and the logical data viewer.<br />
Authenticity: The quality of being reliable or trust worthy.<br />
Fixity: The state or quality of being fixed or unchanged.<br />
Compression: Compression can be applied to many different kinds of digital<br />
objects, and can be either lossless. Lossless compression is fully reversible, so when a<br />
file is decompressed, it is bit <strong>for</strong> bit identical to its original. Lossless compression is<br />
always used <strong>for</strong> encoded text and may be used <strong>for</strong> images sound, video, etc.,<br />
depending on considerations such as bandwidth, quality, and storage requirements.<br />
4. ISSUES IN DIGITAL PRESERVATION<br />
• Obsolescence<br />
File <strong>for</strong>mats and software:<br />
Determine the file <strong>for</strong>mat status of your digital holdings. What <strong>for</strong>mats and<br />
versions are represented, in what quantities? Such an inventory is an important step<br />
towards managing file <strong>for</strong>mat risk. The range of <strong>for</strong>mats in use should be consolidated<br />
to minimize duplication and eliminate problem <strong>for</strong>mats. This process is known as<br />
normalization.<br />
Hardware:<br />
New computing hardware opens the door to new and improved software,<br />
leading to software and file <strong>for</strong>mat obsolescence. The new software will not run on<br />
old hardware, further exacerbating hardware obsolescence. At the same time, the new<br />
hardware introduces other new technologies such as peripheral connections and<br />
storage devices (e.g., USB keys, pen drives and CD drives replace floppy disks).<br />
These changes <strong>for</strong>ce older peripherals into retirements along with their compatible<br />
computers.<br />
Media <strong>for</strong>mat:<br />
There are three commonly used categories of digital storage media: disk, tape<br />
and solid state. The nature of the physical media on which digital data is stored<br />
presents a major challenge to the preservation of digital content. The great variety of<br />
media types, their often rapid obsolescence from technology from technology change,<br />
and their vulnerability to Physical degradation all contribute to problems.<br />
Physical Degradation:<br />
Besides the issues around obsolescence of file <strong>for</strong>mats, applications, operating<br />
systems and hardware, there is the more basic question of how to deal with the fact<br />
that media physically degrade or become obsolete. How long will various media types<br />
last? Thesis considerable controversy around the issues with Kodak claming in one<br />
report that its writable CD’s would last 217 years under certain conditions while<br />
others observe that such media start to degrade after only a couple of years.<br />
88
Rothenberg estimates that optical media have a practical lifetime of 5 to 59<br />
yrs, digital tape 2 to 30 yrs and magnetic disk 5 to 10 yrs. There is just one problem<br />
with such estimates though they‘re all academic, because, with the fast pace of change<br />
in the IT industry, any given medium will be obsolete in about five years. Even if it<br />
continues to functions, modern hardware may not be able to read its contents or even<br />
connect to it.<br />
“Digital in<strong>for</strong>mation lasts <strong>for</strong>ever or even five years, which ever comes first,<br />
“Rothenberg quipped. That means any organization that wants to keep its data<br />
accessible will have to look <strong>for</strong>ward to an unbroken chain of migrations within a time<br />
cycle short enough to prevent the media from becoming physically unreadable or<br />
obsolete be<strong>for</strong>e they are copied. “A single break in this chain can render digital<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation inaccessible short of heroic ef<strong>for</strong>t,” Rothenberg wrote.<br />
Physical threats:<br />
Digital storage media and hardware are subject to numerous internal and<br />
external <strong>for</strong>ces that can damage or destroy their readability.<br />
• Material instability<br />
• Improper storage environment (temperature, humidity, light, dust).<br />
• Overuse(mainly <strong>for</strong> physical contact media)<br />
• Natural disaster (fire, flood, earthquake).<br />
• Infrastructure failure (Plumbing, electrical, climate control).<br />
• Inadequate hardware maintenance.<br />
• Hardware malfunction,<br />
• Human error (including improper handling).<br />
• Sabotage (theft, vandalism)<br />
Storage issues:<br />
Improper storage may be the most common reason <strong>for</strong> premature media<br />
failure. Moderation of temperature and humidity are well known to extend the usable<br />
life of most storage media, but many other factors can help, too.<br />
Handling issues:<br />
Another major threat to storage media come <strong>for</strong>m improper handling. Though<br />
many digital media give the impression of sturdiness and durability, they can be<br />
damaged by too casual an approach to use.<br />
5. CHALLENGES<br />
No medium <strong>for</strong> recording expressions of human creativity, thought, and<br />
accomplishment is immune to damage and decay. In this regard, the long term<br />
maintenance of digital data is no different from the challenge faced by cultural<br />
repositories <strong>for</strong> generations past. The challenges include:<br />
a) Organizational<br />
89
) Technical<br />
c) Resource challenges.<br />
6. SELECTING ASSETS FOR PRESERVATION<br />
Organizational viability<br />
(a) Organizational:<br />
Organizations are investing <strong>for</strong> the digital assets <strong>for</strong> the purpose of<br />
preservation. These decisions should be well-in<strong>for</strong>med, consistent, reevaluated over<br />
time, and documented. Selection protocols should be developed to assess the value of<br />
the digital objects to the organization.<br />
(b) Technical:<br />
Protocols and tools to support and enable selection of digital assets should<br />
continue to be developed and refined with use. Once decisions are made, ingest tools<br />
should be ready to apply those rules.<br />
7. BALANCING MULTIPLE STAKEHOLDERS<br />
Administrative responsibility: producers, users, owners, managers, and others<br />
have varied- and sometimes conflicting- interests and desires regarding digital<br />
objects.<br />
(a) Organizational:<br />
The organization needs a clear and explicit commitment to the establishment<br />
of a digital preservation program and an accurate definition of the scope and purpose<br />
of the program that balances the interest and priorities of stakeholders.<br />
Communication and outreach play an important role in engaging stakeholders’<br />
participation. Stakeholders include content creators or providers designated and future<br />
users, and digital preservation managers.<br />
(b) Technical:<br />
Developing and maintaining the requisite technological infrastructure require<br />
ongoing comprehensive planning.<br />
8. LEGAL ISSUES<br />
Ownership and copyright are not simple in the digital preservation world,<br />
where migration copies, archival copies, derivative versions, and other states of an<br />
object exist, changing over time.<br />
(a) Organizational:<br />
Meeting legal requirements <strong>for</strong> preserving digital objects requires careful,<br />
comprehensive, ongoing approaches that avoid risk to the organization or objects, and<br />
that enable effective mitigation as concerns arise. Thorough procedures, protocols,<br />
and documentation strategies provide the most effective organizational response <strong>for</strong><br />
legal issues.<br />
90
(b) Technical:<br />
Implementing polices in a digital environment is a complex technological<br />
problem that requires careful failsafe protections to ensure that exceptions can be<br />
handled safely.<br />
(c) Resource Challenges:<br />
The resource implications are a product of the level of risk that each institution<br />
is willing to assume. At a minimum, each institution is likely to want to determine if<br />
the materials it is seeking to preserve is in the public domain, or if someone other than<br />
the institution owns the copyright. It may want to try to locate the copyright owner<br />
and license (perhaps at a cost) those rights needed to preserve a work. Alternatively, it<br />
may conclude that preservation activities are authorized by “fair use”- but this<br />
normally involves some legal advice and the support of senior administrators(who<br />
must agree with the risk assessment inherent in any fair use argument).<br />
9. AVOIDING TECHNOLOGICAL OBSOLESCENCE<br />
Technological and Procedural Suitability: Hardware and Software become<br />
obsolete at differing speeds, potentially leaving digital objects unusable or unreadable<br />
over time.<br />
(a) Organizational:<br />
Organization may not be able to af<strong>for</strong>d, or find it desirable, to move digital<br />
objects through every incremental change in versions of software, file <strong>for</strong>mats, or<br />
storage device. Yet, incremental and staged moves <strong>for</strong>ward as technology advances<br />
have to anticipated and properly timed.<br />
(b) Technical:<br />
Enabling good technological decisions to avoid or recover from obsolescence<br />
requires the active and ongoing tracking of the technology used by the organization<br />
and the relevant developments that will support organizational needs. Identifying<br />
timely, essential, and <strong>for</strong>tuitous acquisitions and upgrades is the ideal, sometimes<br />
fueled by luck.<br />
(c) Resources Challenges:<br />
The organization needs short and long term planning to respond to immediate<br />
needs and anticipate future requirements. Funding decisions <strong>for</strong> the digital<br />
preservation program need to be in<strong>for</strong>med by organizational planning and technology<br />
monitoring.<br />
10. FINANCING THE FUTURE RESOURCE SUSTAINABILITY<br />
The costs of digital preservation are widely sought, but difficult to pinpoint.<br />
Providing the administrative and technical infrastructures <strong>for</strong> digital preservation over<br />
the long term requires sustained resources.<br />
(a) Organizational<br />
91
There are many cost factors to consider, including size and scope of the<br />
organization and of the digital preservation program, type of digital materials to<br />
preserve availability of required technology-both hardware and software and<br />
expertise, and existing versus need resources.<br />
(b) Technical:<br />
Sound technology investments to enable digital preservation are a core<br />
component of any successful program. Saving pennies now may cost organization<br />
many more in the future. Technology is not the only cost of digital preservation, but it<br />
is a significant piece that must be managed wisely.<br />
(c) Resources Challenges:<br />
Digital preservation cost models are emerging. Try them on <strong>for</strong> size. Consider<br />
what you need to do to incorporate your digital preservation program into your<br />
accounting and business planning processed.<br />
11. CONCLUSION<br />
Academic Libraries and archival in<strong>for</strong>mation’s have a unique opportunity in<br />
the area of digital preservation. In ensuring persistent access to digital heritage, the<br />
complementary processes of archiving and preservation are intertwined. The dynamic<br />
and ephemeral nature of digital publications presents a special challenge <strong>for</strong><br />
archiving. In addition, rapid changes in technology means that documents created in<br />
current <strong>for</strong>mats, may be obsolete and inaccessible within a decade the facility with<br />
which electronic documents may be reproduced means that intellectual property rights<br />
issues also need to be addressed be<strong>for</strong>e materials can be copied. Once electronic<br />
records have been collected, archival repositories also require appropriate<br />
infrastructures to enable storage, maintenance and access over the long term.<br />
REFERENCE<br />
1. http:// www.openarchives.org/<br />
2. http://www.digitlapresevation.gov/<br />
3. http://www.nla.gov.au/padi/topics/18.html<br />
4. http://www.rlg.org/en/page.php?page-id-114<br />
5. Digital In<strong>for</strong>mation Preservation, Jaba Das, workshop on Digital Libraries: theory<br />
6. and PracticeMarch,2003DRTC,Bangolore.<br />
92
APPROACH ADOPTED BY NPCIL FOR CAPTURING AND<br />
PRESERVING KNOWLEDGE<br />
J.P.Moolani * , R.Mago*, Umesh Chandra*<br />
Abstract<br />
This paper summarises the present status, the experiences and future plans towards<br />
capturing and preserving knowledge in Nuclear Power Corporation. Expanding nuclear power programme<br />
and attrition prompted top management to lay emphasis on management of knowledge, specifically towards<br />
maximising enterprise intellectual capital. This concern of the top management of NPCIL led to <strong>for</strong>mation<br />
of Knowledge Management group headed by a senior management level. Out of the two kinds of knowledge<br />
namely explicit and tacit knowledge, the explicit knowledge is reasonably well documented and hence the<br />
key concern was to capture, preserve and maximise tacit knowledge as this is lost with the separation of<br />
personnel possessing specific expertise and knowledge.<br />
The paper describes the approach adopted by Knowledge Management group of NPCIL in<br />
capturing and preserving tacit knowledge and the results achieved in this regard. Methodologies <strong>for</strong><br />
identifying areas <strong>for</strong> experience and sharing of the same by organising the various training and workshop<br />
sessions on regular basis have been detailed. Documenting of the so gained knowledge in e-<strong>for</strong>m and<br />
making it available in Knowledge Management (KM) portal has been described. This portal is accessible to<br />
all employees of NPCIL at all sites and HQ through intranet.<br />
The paper also presents the ef<strong>for</strong>ts being put towards development of computer based / web based<br />
training (CBT / WBT) packages which would not only capture organisation related tacit knowledge and<br />
difficult skills but would also ensure effectiveness of the training in this context. Insight about difficulties in<br />
the development of such in-house packages in view of specialisation / expertise needed have been indicated<br />
along with the approach adopted by NPCIL to address these difficulties<br />
The paper concludes with the need of promoting enterprise knowledge driven culture and<br />
motivational elements to capture the knowledge from in-house experts including retirees through<br />
incentives/ recognition/awards. Future action plans are also discussed to achieve maximization of the<br />
enterprise intellectual capital and delivering of knowledge based products and services.<br />
1. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT (KM)<br />
1.1 Key Words<br />
Be<strong>for</strong>e sharing the present status and experiences in capturing and preserving<br />
knowledge in Nuclear Power Corporation, it would be worthwhile that audiences are<br />
refreshed briefly about frequent used terms ‘explicit knowledge’ and ‘tacit knowledge’ as<br />
these have become the buzzword in organizations in the last decade and there<strong>for</strong>e their<br />
correct understanding bear significance<br />
Explicit knowledge – can be <strong>for</strong>mally articulated or encoded; can be more easily<br />
transferred or shared;<br />
Tacit knowledge – knowledge-in-practice; developed from direct experience and<br />
action; highly pragmatic and situation specific; subconsciously understood and applied;<br />
difficult to articulate; usually shared through highly interactive sessions.<br />
* Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited<br />
93
This knowledge would vanish from the organisation if it is not captured prior to<br />
separation of the person possessing such knowledge.<br />
Thus the concept of knowledge goes beyond the definition of in<strong>for</strong>mation. It<br />
consists of “in<strong>for</strong>mation artifacts, such as documents and reports, available within the<br />
organization and in the world outside” as well as “the experience and understanding of<br />
the people in the organization”. The <strong>for</strong>mer is termed as explicit knowledge while the<br />
latter is regarded as tacit knowledge.<br />
1.2 Why KM in Nuclear Power Industry<br />
Following issues indicate as to why knowledge management has become the need<br />
of the hour specifically in context of managing of Indian Nuclear Power Plant Programme<br />
– Expanding Power Programme requires management of technology divergent with<br />
increasing complexity due to need <strong>for</strong> development of larger power producing nuclear<br />
plants and of different design.<br />
– Ageing fleet of plants and need <strong>for</strong> refurbishment -Design basis in<strong>for</strong>mation is critical (to<br />
be kept up to date)<br />
– Need <strong>for</strong> high productivity gains in the environment where the industry is facing tough<br />
standards imposed by regulatory bodies, competition from other conventional power<br />
industries and management of obsolescence related issues<br />
– Move towards lean operations and maintenance staff <strong>for</strong> efficient and cost effective<br />
management of the plants<br />
– Complex technology base, dependence on multi-disciplinary technologies and expertise<br />
– Long plant life cycles, capital intensive, need <strong>for</strong> economic and risk in<strong>for</strong>med<br />
decisions<br />
2. EVOLUTION OF KM IN NPCIL<br />
From the very beginning of Indian nuclear power programme, the emphasis on<br />
documentation has always been there. The documents like design notes, design basis<br />
reports, design manuals, safety reports engineering drawings, tender documents, material<br />
purchase requisitions, indents, purchase orders, inspection reports , non con<strong>for</strong>mity<br />
reports, design concession requests, manufacturers’ instruction manuals , inspection<br />
history dockets , various national and international codes and standards etc. were<br />
generated , indexed and systematically stored <strong>for</strong> easy and convenient retrieval .These<br />
documents laid the very foundation of subsequently required documents <strong>for</strong> construction,<br />
commissioning ,operation and maintenance phases. All these aided the <strong>for</strong>mulation of<br />
training material <strong>for</strong> developing operation and maintenance (O&M) personnel.<br />
A strong culture of comprehensive and extensive induction training programme in<br />
O&M organisations by recruitment at stipendiary trainees level has served as the boon<br />
<strong>for</strong> achieving efficient O&M work<strong>for</strong>ce. This has led to ease in implementation of the<br />
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qualification programmes <strong>for</strong> all categories of scientific and technical employees.<br />
Foundation of technical knowledge management was built over an operating experience<br />
of almost four decades with continuous evaluation by line managers corporate<br />
management, knowledge facilitators and. regulators, This developed a logical structure of<br />
a qualification-based organization <strong>for</strong> operating stations, which led to documentation of<br />
on-going programs with adequate guidelines on design and implementation. The aim had<br />
been to provide a broad based nuclear plant orientation and generic task skills, followed<br />
by “hands on” commissioning experience. The systems worked well as per the design<br />
intent and facilitated development of strong training infrastructure. NPCIL has six fullfledged<br />
Nuclear Training Centers (NTCs) <strong>for</strong> conduct of common organizational<br />
programs <strong>for</strong> various NPPs such as ‘<strong>for</strong>mal induction training <strong>for</strong> various categories in<br />
different disciplines’, ‘simulator training on full scope replica simulators’ and such other<br />
programs. These training centers are fully equipped with classrooms, library and various<br />
training shops catering to practical training of trainees of different disciplines. Three<br />
Nuclear Training Centers are also equipped with full-scope simulators.<br />
However, the new business environment in early nineties required, the optimized<br />
utilization of resources , compressed project schedules and quick succession of several<br />
nuclear power projects (NPPs). Hence the corporate policy in NPCIL was required to<br />
refine, restructure and accelerate all disciplines of traditional training and qualification (T<br />
& Q) systems. The thrust was to make T & Q systems more job per<strong>for</strong>mance focused<br />
requiring a much shorter lead-time to qualify personnel to different positions. Adaptation<br />
of Systematic Approach to Training (SAT) was the answer to above.<br />
Our interaction with international agencies (International <strong>Atomic</strong> Energy Agency,<br />
World Association of Nuclear Operators, CANDU Owners’ Group and such others) as<br />
well as through feedback received by internal and external peer reviews established<br />
corporate level management commitment to adaptation of such SAT methods. A uni<strong>for</strong>m<br />
and systematic approach <strong>for</strong> managing these changes at NPP sites in all the disciplines<br />
without interrupting the ongoing training activities was implemented in selective and<br />
phased manner <strong>for</strong> effective change management. This also paved the way <strong>for</strong> structured<br />
capture of tacit/explicit knowledge in <strong>for</strong>m of ‘on-job-training checklist questionnaires’,<br />
simulator lesson plans, examination syllabus and such others.<br />
From year 2000 onwards, expansion of organization and retention of knowledge<br />
resources became the key issues . Superannuation of experienced personnel and attrition<br />
of young engineers needed a makeover in erstwhile corporate policy of knowledge<br />
management and training, <strong>for</strong> preserving existing knowledge <strong>for</strong> competitive business<br />
advantage The basic need of uni<strong>for</strong>m and systematic knowledge management approach in<br />
NPCIL was to inculcate confidence towards preparedness of NPCIL to undertake massive<br />
expansion program by ensuring adequate knowledge resources and competent trained<br />
staffing.<br />
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The key issues were:<br />
– Development of new approach <strong>for</strong> human asset management - acquisition and retention<br />
– Development and implementation of Knowledge Management (KM) systems, tools and<br />
programs <strong>for</strong> knowledge capture and dissemination<br />
– Focus on generation, absorption and dissemination of new reactor technologies (700<br />
MWe PHWR, FBR and PWR) knowledge bases<br />
– Enhancement of effectiveness of KM systems/tools already developed<br />
– Identification, career progression and redeployment of intellectual assets to<br />
organization’s best advantage<br />
– Making corporate in<strong>for</strong>mation accessible to employee through knowledge portal,<br />
knowledge bank and sharing of best practices<br />
– Harness IT infrastructure effectively <strong>for</strong> maximum advantage and to promote e learning.<br />
In order to achieve above, a dedicated KM group headed by a senior management<br />
level was created at HQs. As KM and learning activities <strong>for</strong> operating personnel were<br />
already streamlined, focused attention is being given <strong>for</strong> qualification development <strong>for</strong><br />
construction/project/engineering personnel. Committees and facilitator groups in the<br />
NPCIL Headquarters were constituted <strong>for</strong> finalisation of qualification procedures. The<br />
focus is to embed knowledge elements in all the new business process automation<br />
projects (core business as well as commercial systems) so that the generated knowledge<br />
can be trans<strong>for</strong>med, stored and disseminated <strong>for</strong> business needs. A process of human<br />
asset review has started.<br />
3. METHODS ADOPTED IN NPCIL FOR CAPTURING KNOWLEDGE<br />
3.1 Good practices <strong>for</strong> maintaining the currency of knowledge<br />
Managing obsolescence of knowledge is an essential requirement to ensure<br />
relevance and accuracy of knowledge else it would provide incorrect inputs to those<br />
utilizing such knowledge which would in turn lead to human errors in the organisation.<br />
In NPCIL, knowledge updating is done by capturing the sources of in<strong>for</strong>mation reflecting<br />
needs of such updation. The policy to distribute such relevant documents to training<br />
groups in each O&M organisation serves as trigger <strong>for</strong> updation of classroom training<br />
material and field checklist <strong>for</strong> On-Job-training.<br />
The mandate as laid down in the licensing and qualification procedure and QA<br />
policy ensures that syllabus, training material and on-job-verification documents (called<br />
OJT checklists) are revised periodically to maintain relevance and accuracy of the same.<br />
This policy has ensured that changes in knowledge are captured by training personnel and<br />
training and knowledge verification documents are updated using relevant documents.<br />
The documents, which typically provide the following in<strong>for</strong>mation, are used in this<br />
context:<br />
• Configuration changes due to ECNs<br />
• Implementation of changes arising out of the Lessons Learnt through Root Cause<br />
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Analysis (RCA) of events<br />
• Introduction to any new Good Practices ( GPs)<br />
• Awareness of the new design and associated principles<br />
• Awareness of the revised Operating Procedures<br />
• Sharing of experiences based on the Seminar/ Workshop/Training programmes<br />
conducted by Knowledge Management Group/ NTCs etc<br />
A concept of ‘Training Update Memo’ has been introduced in NTCs as a good<br />
practice to ensure that one always uses the current version of the document. Training<br />
Superintendents (TSs) get hard and soft copies of training/workshop proceedings issued<br />
by KM group to see the applicability of the topics <strong>for</strong> initial/continued training purposes<br />
at site. Based on this review TSs ensure appropriate up-to-dating of relevant training<br />
material. TSs also ensure that trainers conduct training programmes in future on such<br />
topics using the up-to-dated version of training material.<br />
3.2 Through continuing training and retraining programs <strong>for</strong> NPCIL personnel<br />
Althogh training programme is considered to be a knowledge dissemination mechanism, yet it<br />
serves as the means of capturing f new/tacit knowledge due to sharing/interactive nature .<br />
Corporate documents control implementation of such training and re-training. The continuing<br />
training, which promotes capturing of tacit and new knowledge typically, includes knowledge<br />
sharing on<br />
• Infrequent or rare experiences such as accident situations<br />
• Lessons learnt based on root cause analysis and sharing of above experiences<br />
• Simulator exercises on above aspects. This approach embodies that aspect of<br />
knowledge which is difficult to articulate but is understandable through<br />
simulation of experience on simulator<br />
Retraining is conducted in NPCIL through <strong>for</strong>mal lecture programs as well as in<br />
workshop <strong>for</strong>mat <strong>for</strong> review and re-analysis of incidents and operating experiences. The<br />
training objectives are accordingly worked out using the corporate guidelines. The tacit<br />
knowledge so captured become the part of training material and is distributed among<br />
participants and is also put on intranet and hard copy is kept in library <strong>for</strong> reference and<br />
use by concerned employees.<br />
4. KNOWLEDGE DISSEMINATION PRACTICES<br />
4.1 Systematic Approach to Training (SAT)<br />
Systematic Approach to Training is recognised internationally as the best practice<br />
of training. SAT approach adopted in NPCIL has helped the organisation to achieve<br />
effectiveness in knowledge management because the knowledge dissemination through<br />
this methodology ensures that need based knowledge is imparted to the concerned<br />
employee. SAT approach identifies training needs in respect of an individual after taking<br />
into account his/her present competencies and required competencies based on his/her<br />
duty areas. This competence gap analysis provides direction <strong>for</strong> training needs. This<br />
approach has been adopted in O&M organisations and same approach is being considered<br />
<strong>for</strong> construction and HQ personnel. This training need analysis is continuous process<br />
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as there would be changes in competence requirements of persons due to job rotation,<br />
upgradation, and technological upgradation/changes.<br />
4.2 Approach <strong>for</strong> management of knowledge –in- practice<br />
Tacit knowledge is difficult to be imparted , yet it is possible to make its’<br />
dissemination easier through effective training settings. In NPCIL Nuclear Training<br />
<strong>Centre</strong>s (NTCs) are equipped with various provisions of effective training settings in this<br />
regard. These NTCs are equipped with various workshops having working models, cutaway-views<br />
of complex equipment, exploded views through drawings and charts <strong>for</strong><br />
providing sound knowledge on foundation courses <strong>for</strong> all technical personnel and have<br />
helped in achieving of multidisciplinary knowledge and skills among technical personnel.<br />
Earlier, Control Room engineers used to learn under guidance and close<br />
supervision of their superiors. Now such learning has become easier through Nuclear<br />
Power Plant Simulators. This facility provides structured progressive learning, under the<br />
guidance of qualified instructor, of about 5 to 7 weeks duration, covering all phases of<br />
plant operations thus making it easier to license incumbents in shorter duration <strong>for</strong><br />
control room positions. The human error will not result into any actual incident as this is<br />
only simulation but at the same time would provide opportunity to the incumbent to learn<br />
managing of such incident<br />
Considering difficulties in transfer of tacit knowledge from the diofficult to be<br />
located experts , computer based or web based training (CBT/WBT) packages have<br />
become powerful tools. Here using services of training expert, structured presentations on<br />
the selected topic in <strong>for</strong>m of multimedia training package are developed. For explaining<br />
the operation of complex mechanism, the dynamic simulation of such mechanism through<br />
computer mimics or video clips is en<strong>for</strong>ced and progressive learning concept ensures that<br />
phase wise learning takes place. Unless the incumbent knowledge is not verified through<br />
built in test mechanism, he/she would not be permitted to visit next phase of learning. The<br />
incumbent can replay the part not understood by him any number of times he desires till<br />
he has understood it. For conventional part of core competency such packages are<br />
available in the market, however <strong>for</strong> Nuclear System knowledge, in house custom built<br />
package is the only solution. KM group has started putting the ef<strong>for</strong>ts in this direction. As<br />
these training packages are also accessible through intranet easy availability <strong>for</strong> learning<br />
by larger work <strong>for</strong>ce is another advantage of this approach<br />
4.3 Promoting Communities of Practices and Groups of Subject Matter Experts<br />
Communities of practices and specialist task <strong>for</strong>ces have been established at<br />
NPCIL to promote sharing of knowledge and experiences. Some of them are described<br />
below:<br />
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4.3.1 Quality circles<br />
Each Operating Station has promoted <strong>for</strong>mation of quality circles so that all the<br />
personnel involved <strong>for</strong> a particular problem join hands and find out the solution through<br />
group discussions and provide solution to the Management. These communities of<br />
practices have given useful inputs <strong>for</strong> improvements <strong>for</strong> achieving the improved plant<br />
per<strong>for</strong>mance.<br />
4.3.2 Organising of In-house workshop/seminars<br />
For the last couple of years KM Group has been organising workshops/seminars<br />
by inviting in-house faculty based on their volunteered offer <strong>for</strong> sharing of their<br />
experiences through workshops.The details of such scheduled workshops/seminars as<br />
well as the lecture contents are available on NPCIL intranet. Thus all interested can<br />
come and join the workshop/seminar. This approach has promoted a lot of interest<br />
among the employees .<br />
5. CONCLUDING REMARKS<br />
Organizational knowledge ranges from the individual to group to the corporate<br />
level. Some of it is explicit in the sense that it can be coded and transmitted in a <strong>for</strong>mal<br />
and systematic language. At the other end of the continuum is implicit or tacit knowledge,<br />
which is derived from personal experience. With expanding nuclear power programme,<br />
the Corporation is seized with the issues such as need of promoting enterprise knowledge<br />
driven culture and motivation elements to capture the tacit knowledge from in-house<br />
experts including retirees through recognition/awards.<br />
The practices and methods of knowledge management in NPCIL have evolved<br />
with built-in knowledge capture and dissemination mechanisms <strong>for</strong> ensuring that the<br />
required quality of knowledge is available to NPP personnel. The focus has been to<br />
master and manage high technology while producing good financial results without<br />
compromising on safety. the installation of systematic approach to training approach to<br />
knowledge management methodology and in<strong>for</strong>mation management system in all its<br />
traditional qualification systems is expected to boost effectiveness in the knowledge<br />
management. It is expected that present ef<strong>for</strong>ts <strong>for</strong> promoting custom built CBT/WBT<br />
approach will help in resolving increasing demand of knowledge dissemination in NPCIL<br />
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Digital Preservation and Online Access in<br />
“Meghnad Saha Archive”<br />
Dipa Dasgupta *<br />
Abstract<br />
The goal of the Meghnad Saha Archive is to preserve the archival materials, enhance<br />
accessibility to the materials and increase the public awareness of the scientific achievement, political<br />
activities, moral and humane values of Prof. Meghnad Saha. A trusted repository requires new<br />
methods, policies, standards and technologies <strong>for</strong> its preservation purpose. This paper will explain the<br />
purpose of digitization, source selection criteria and general standard <strong>for</strong> creating digital image. It<br />
will also provide guideline <strong>for</strong> digitization of image, software and hardware recommendation,<br />
advantages and disadvantages of digital preservation<br />
1. INTRODUCTION<br />
The goal of the Meghnad Saha Archive is to preserve the archival materials,<br />
enhance accessibility to the materials and increase the public awareness of the<br />
scientific achievement, political and scientific organizing activities, moral and<br />
humane values of Meghnad Saha. Our special collection and holdings of archive have<br />
been away from public view <strong>for</strong> a long time. Now anyone with access to the internet<br />
can log on to our website and view number of historical documents and images<br />
related to Meghnad Saha. This democratization of archival collection has been<br />
possible through the digital revolution. Online resources serve local, national and<br />
international needs. We want to increase utility of our collection by allowing a wider<br />
audience to view digital surrogates of primary materials.<br />
2. PURPOSE<br />
Digitization is essential aids in material preservation. Creation of digital<br />
surrogates of valuable archival materials can serve to enhance preservation ef<strong>for</strong>ts by<br />
reducing the handling of original materials. This can be specialy beneficial <strong>for</strong><br />
decreasing wear and tear to fragile or rare valuable items. Decrease access to originals<br />
also helps to protect items from potential theft or mutilation. Digital surrogates can<br />
serve as backups in case the originals are lost in a disaster or theft. So by producing a<br />
high quality digital reproduction of an item, archivists can keep the original safely<br />
locked away, while the researcher views the digital version either in the archives or<br />
from a remote location. Copies can be easily and cheaply made from a digital file,<br />
leaving the original undisturbed.<br />
3. SOURCE SELECTION, FINDING AIDS AND STANDARDS<br />
The Meghnad Saha Archive has implemented a plan to digitize its holdings<br />
starting with the vast correspondence with the most influential physicists and<br />
intellectuals of the 20 th century. At the time of this article we have digitized almost<br />
2000 letters. Once the project is completed, we will begin to digitize M.N. Saha’s<br />
scientific and non-scientific articles, lectures, statements, <strong>for</strong>wards and curiosity<br />
items, reprints, newspaper clipping, posters, photographs etc.<br />
Prof. Meghnad Saha visionised that his Institute of Nuclear Physics would<br />
one day become one of the best scientific institutes of the world. His dream has been<br />
realized <strong>for</strong> at present. Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics has acquired international<br />
* P&D Unit, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata, dipa.dasgupta@saha.ac.in<br />
100
fame. So in the near future, we plan to digitize all the important documents on<br />
historical and developmental activities of Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics since its<br />
birth. All the important and frontline lectures delivered by world famous scientists at<br />
SINP during different occasions <strong>for</strong> last five years are preserved digitally in our<br />
archive. Current Annual Reports of SINP is available online in our website.<br />
To generate a greater awareness of our holdings, we have begun to prepare our<br />
finding aids, the paper guide to our archival materials. Finding aids are the main tools<br />
of archival description, providing a detailed account of the contents of an archival<br />
collection. The web will facilitate both the searching and distribution of the guides.<br />
Then a researcher will able to browse our guides without making a trip to the archive<br />
and will make appointments to view the records.<br />
We are now starting to build virtual archives of selected materials from our<br />
archive which provide us with another motivation <strong>for</strong> developing an encoding<br />
standard <strong>for</strong> finding aids. We must intellectually and physically manage and control<br />
the objects in digital archive, just as we have the traditional materials that frequently<br />
serve as the source. Creating digital repository will require precise mechanisms to<br />
locate and present computer files in a variety of notations. We will need to create<br />
complex, compound archival in<strong>for</strong>mation constellations comprised of finding aids,<br />
digital representation of primary source and in<strong>for</strong>mation that maintains the integrity<br />
and interrelation of the two across different hardware and software plat<strong>for</strong>ms. If we<br />
fail to manage the digital treasures in our care, we will lose them <strong>for</strong>ever. The only<br />
means to assure the enduring access and control required through standards.<br />
Used in conjunction with the ubiquitous connectivity of the Internet, a<br />
standard <strong>for</strong> encoding finding aids will enable archives to easily communicate and<br />
share in<strong>for</strong>mation about their collections with one another and users. It will be<br />
possible <strong>for</strong> users and staff to easily locate and gather in<strong>for</strong>mation about related but<br />
different collections. We will be able to restore the unity and integrity of collections<br />
that have been dispersed among two or more repositories creating virtual collections.<br />
Direct access to in<strong>for</strong>mation about one another's collections will facilitate interinstitutional<br />
cooperation in collection development and preservation where knowledge<br />
of the holdings of other institutions can help archivist make difficult decisions about<br />
how to spend money in developing, managing, and preserving their own collections.<br />
4. DIGITAL PRESERVATION STRATEGY<br />
How can an institution keep up with all the various types of digital files,<br />
programs, and computers being used in-house much less keep abreast of emerging<br />
technologies? How much preservation is enough? How much is too much? What are<br />
the deciding factors <strong>for</strong> an institution? These are all issues that need to be considered<br />
when devising a digital preservation strategy. Here are some points to start:<br />
Software/Hardware migration: Because of the issues of obsolescence, all<br />
products of digital preservation must be migrated at some point, at the very least to a<br />
file <strong>for</strong>mat that the latest technology can recognize. If someone wants to preserve the<br />
whole system, then operating systems and functional software must be migrated as<br />
well. Full system migration must be carried out frequently to ensure access and<br />
usability. In order to protect one’s digital assets, one wants to <strong>for</strong>mulate a migration<br />
policy that is implemented on a regular basis rather a reactionary action to new<br />
software or hardware. After migration, it is crucial to test the documents to ensure that<br />
functionality has been preserved.<br />
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Physical deterioration of digital media: As with other <strong>for</strong>mats, all digital media<br />
deteriorates over time. This process will be more rapid if storage conditions are bad,<br />
such as a damp basement, or as a pile of CDs stacked one on top of another. Correct<br />
storage (e.g. in racks that enable the disks to be stored separately) and an<br />
environmentally controlled location will help to optimize stability and protect digital<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation from loss. Digital media should be checked and refreshed regularly to<br />
ensure that the data is still readable, and this process should be part of one’s<br />
preservation policy. Preserve the data on a medium where the hardware exists to<br />
transfer to a later medium if the original becomes obsolete. It should be remember<br />
that it is costly to use a data recovery agent to move files from an obsolete medium, so<br />
make sure the preservation policy will prevent this happening, and migrate while the<br />
process is still straight<strong>for</strong>ward. Digital media should also be part of an institution's<br />
disaster preparedness plan.<br />
Metadata: Metadata is the in<strong>for</strong>mation about the creation and maintenance of the<br />
digital images. Metadata is crucial to preserve. It is important to ensure that metadata<br />
is recorded somewhere in or outside of digital asset management system.<br />
User needs and preferences: This is a complex issue which may cause certain <strong>for</strong>mats<br />
to become effectively obsolete even while they remain technically functional. User<br />
acceptance and its decline will compel migrations to new delivery versions of digital<br />
collections.<br />
5. DIGITAL PRESERVATION PROCESS<br />
There are essentially five main storage applications that occur during the<br />
digitization process: Production, Data transportation, Presentation to the public,<br />
Backup or Archiving, and Migration.<br />
Production<br />
The production or creation of digital material generally requires sufficient hard<br />
disk capacity to store working files while they are being manipulated and developed.<br />
If the collection is considerable and there is a large production environment, a<br />
Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) may be the most appropriate however<br />
storage <strong>for</strong> active files can generally be handled by a large hard drive. Be warned that<br />
determining what will reside on the hard drive and what will be <strong>for</strong>warded to a server<br />
in networked environments can often be difficult because multiple versions of files<br />
can become confusing. It is important to outline the various processes one need to<br />
per<strong>for</strong>m on the same images and then determine how many "active" files one need at<br />
any one time. This demonstrates the role of file management and file naming in the<br />
preservation process.<br />
Data Transportation<br />
Generally, moving digital in<strong>for</strong>mation is handled by portable storage devices<br />
such as recordable CDs (compact disks) and more recently by DVDs (Digital Video<br />
Disks or Digital Versatile Disks). The capacity of the CD and DVD is greater than<br />
that of the tape drive, an early favorite <strong>for</strong> data transportation, though its transfer rate<br />
is slower than tape. Another feature of the CD is its compatibility across plat<strong>for</strong>ms.<br />
The CD-R (a CD which can only be written upon once) is a secure <strong>for</strong>mat; its "write<br />
once mechanism" does not allow overwriting. CD-RW (CD Read/Write) is less secure<br />
but more versatile.<br />
Presentation to the Public<br />
102
Most institutions making images of their collections available to the public via<br />
the Internet make use of in-house servers or rent space on commercial servers.<br />
Backup/Archiving<br />
Digital collections should be backed up in a <strong>for</strong>mat that is easily accessible<br />
and stored remote from the original source on a routine basis. When evaluating<br />
storage <strong>for</strong> backup, the inevitable dilemma is between speed and cost. Most managers<br />
prefer tape <strong>for</strong> backup, as it may be used at non-peak hours, when speed is not an<br />
issue. For small networked systems, tape backup is the common practice.<br />
Migration<br />
In the context of digital preservation, migration refers to the shifting of digital<br />
objects from old media <strong>for</strong>mats and software programs to newer ones. Migration of<br />
backed-up digital material needs to be as easy and cost-effective as possible <strong>for</strong><br />
institutions to buy into a system. The continual drain on fiscal resources to repeatedly<br />
upgrade equipment and software can be borne by some institutions, but others will<br />
find it difficult to stay abreast of continual migration. Decisions must be made in<br />
every institution concerning what in<strong>for</strong>mation will be saved and migrated and what<br />
will not based on a combination of cost effectiveness, intellectual necessity, and moral<br />
and professional obligation.<br />
6. GENERAL STANDARD FOR CREATING DIGITAL IMAGES<br />
Classifying Document Type<br />
According to the guidelines established by Cali<strong>for</strong>nia State Library and<br />
NARA, material selected <strong>for</strong> scanning can be divided in the following classifications.<br />
However, decisions <strong>for</strong> scanning documents may need to be made on an individual<br />
basis, depending on the intended goals <strong>for</strong> digitization.<br />
Textual Documents: Including printed materials, photocopies, manuscripts,<br />
some bitonal line drawings and maps.<br />
Photographs: Including color, sepia-tone, and black and white photographic prints,<br />
negatives and transparencies.<br />
Maps, Plans and Oversize Records: In some cases the original document may be<br />
scanned, and more typically institutions will scan photocopies, copy transparencies, or<br />
photographic copy, negatives.<br />
Graphic Materials: More detailed graphic illustrations such as line-drawings,<br />
lithographs, water-colors and other artistic illustrations. Again, provisions may be<br />
made <strong>for</strong> scanning the original document, photocopies, copy negatives, or<br />
transparencies (as long as the scanner has this ability). In some cases graphic<br />
materials can follow the same guidelines given <strong>for</strong> photographic records.<br />
Master and Derivative Image Files: In accordance to the guidelines established by<br />
NARA and the Colorado Digitization Project, we propose that three versions of the<br />
image be created: A Master Image, Access Image, and Thumbnail Image. The<br />
following in<strong>for</strong>mation is taken from CDP’s General Guidelines <strong>for</strong> Scanning<br />
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7. POLICIES FOR DIGITIZATION<br />
1. Meghnad Saha Archive will not digitize its entire collection.<br />
2. Digitization and the management of digital objects are undertaken in the<br />
efficient and effective manner possible. Digitized collections are arranged<br />
in proper ways that are easy <strong>for</strong> public to access and navigate.<br />
3. Digital project also cover the management of storage space <strong>for</strong> digital<br />
online products.<br />
4. In addition to converting materials to digital <strong>for</strong>mat <strong>for</strong> access in the world<br />
wide web, Meghnad Saha Archive also present digital material to public<br />
domain by means of Online Exhibition and Publications.<br />
5. Digitization activities are integrated into Publication & Documenta-tion<br />
Unit’s routine activities<br />
6. Digitization is undertaken in accordance with the copyright act and other<br />
relevant legislation. Physical ownership does not automatically mean that<br />
an institution owns the rights to reproduce it. In the past it was thought that<br />
when an object was transferred to an institution, so too were the legal<br />
rights to reproduce the object. Institution can no longer count on the fact<br />
that legal rights are transferred.<br />
7. Authentication of an object is one of the most important issues in archive<br />
administration So Archive will keep all administrative in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
protected.<br />
8. The digitization of items in the collection is not diminish commitment to<br />
the preservation and care of these items, while the resulting digital<br />
surrogates will reduce the need <strong>for</strong> future handling of the items. If it is<br />
essential to digitize an item that is unstable due to its chemical and<br />
physical structure, digital camera is used <strong>for</strong> the scanning phase.<br />
9. Digital version of materials will represent originals as closely as possible.<br />
Image will not be manipulated or improved, except to compensate <strong>for</strong><br />
defects in equipment or in the original.<br />
10. There is a commitment to migration and/or conversation technologies to<br />
enable long term future <strong>for</strong> digital products.<br />
8. CONCLUSION<br />
Preservation keeps materials alive, intact and available <strong>for</strong> use so that they can<br />
be authoritatively used as long as possible (1) to document our heritage and our<br />
society and (2) to guide to others who will come in the future. As Philip Ward<br />
poetically states-<br />
“Our heritage is all that we know of ourselves; what we preserve of it, our<br />
only record. The record is our beacon in the darkness of time; the light that guides our<br />
steps.”<br />
Digital in<strong>for</strong>mation <strong>for</strong>ms an increasingly large part of our cultural and<br />
intellectual heritage and offers significant benefits to users. At the same time<br />
preservation and access to this in<strong>for</strong>mation is dependent on impermanent media and<br />
technologies; retaining metadata on the provenance and context; and retaining the<br />
authenticity and content of the resource. Although experience in creating and<br />
managing specific <strong>for</strong>ms of digital data has been built up over a number of decades in<br />
the sciences and social sciences, in many areas it is a relatively new medium where<br />
much of the future life-cycle, activities and cost models are currently unknown. These<br />
factors have led to increasing concern about the potential loss of our "collective<br />
104
memory" in the Digital Age and have prompted further research into the long-term<br />
preservation of digital in<strong>for</strong>mation and maintaining future access to it.<br />
9. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS<br />
I am extremely thankful to our Director Prof. Bikash Sinha, Prof.ANS<br />
Iyengar, Chairman, P&D Unit <strong>for</strong> their support and encouragement and to the<br />
individuals who are directly or indirectly contributed substantially to this paper.<br />
REFERENCE<br />
1. Beamsley, T. (1999). Securing digital image assets in museums and libraries: A risk<br />
management approach. Library Trends, 48(2), 358-78.<br />
2. Besser, H. (1999). Digital longevity.<br />
3. Conway, P. (2000). Overview: Rationale <strong>for</strong> digitization and preservation In Sitts, M.<br />
(Ed.), Handbook <strong>for</strong> digital projects: A management tool <strong>for</strong> preservation and access.<br />
4. Conway, Paul. Preservation in the Digital World<br />
5. Digital Imaging <strong>for</strong> Archival Preservation and Online Presentation: Best Practices<br />
6. de Stefano, P. (2000). Selection <strong>for</strong> digital conversion. In Kenney, A. & O. Rieger<br />
(Eds.), Moving theory into practice: Digital imaging <strong>for</strong> libraries and archives (pp.<br />
11-23).<br />
7. Fleischhauer, C. (2000). Selecting collections and selecting technology: American<br />
memory at the Library of Congress. In Kenney, A. & O. Rieger (Eds.), Moving<br />
theory into practice: Digital imaging <strong>for</strong> libraries and archives (p. 20).<br />
8. Gertz, J. (2000). Selection <strong>for</strong> preservation in the digital age: An overview. Library<br />
Resources & Technical Services, 44(2), 97-104.<br />
9. Gilliland-Swetland, A. (2000). In Baca, M. (Ed.), Introduction to metadata, pathways<br />
to digital in<strong>for</strong>mation: Setting the stage.<br />
10. Ingram, G. (2000). Selection of special collections material <strong>for</strong> digitization. In<br />
Kenney, A. & O. Rieger (Eds.), Moving theory into practice: Digital imaging <strong>for</strong><br />
libraries and archives (pp. 18-19).<br />
11. Kenney, A. (2000). Digital benchmarking <strong>for</strong> conversion and access. In Kenney, A.<br />
& O. Rieger (Eds.), Moving theory into practice: Digital imaging <strong>for</strong> libraries and<br />
archives (pp. 24-60).<br />
12. Kenney, A., & Rieger, O. (2000). Introduction: Moving theory into practice. In<br />
Kenney, A. & O. Rieger (Eds.), Moving theory into practice: digital imaging <strong>for</strong><br />
libraries and<br />
13. Macklin, L. & Lockmiller, S. (1999). Digital imaging of photographs: A practical<br />
approach to workflow design and project management.<br />
14. NARA Guidelines <strong>for</strong> digitizing Archival Materials <strong>for</strong> electronic Access<br />
15. Russell, A. (2000). Preface. In Sitts, M. (Ed.), Handbook <strong>for</strong> digital projects: A<br />
management tool <strong>for</strong> preservation and access.<br />
16. Sandore, B. (2000). What users want from digital image collections. In Kenney, A. &<br />
O. Rieger (Eds.), Moving theory into practice: digital imaging <strong>for</strong> libraries and<br />
archives (p. 4-5).<br />
17. Smith, A. (2000). Real-life choices. In A. Kenney & O. Rieger (Eds.), Moving theory<br />
into practice: Digital imaging <strong>for</strong> libraries and archives (p. 3).<br />
105
Library 2.0: Myth or Reality ?<br />
E.Soundararajan* and M.Somasekharan *<br />
Abstract<br />
Library 2.0 is a concept of a very different library service, geared towards the needs and<br />
expectations of today’s library users. The changes in the in<strong>for</strong>mation environment offer great<br />
opportunities <strong>for</strong> the progressive libraries to reach out far beyond the boundaries of their buildings<br />
and web sites and to engage with an increasingly literate body of the in<strong>for</strong>mation consumers.<br />
Key words: Library 2.0, Web 2.0, Librarian 2.0.<br />
1.INTRODUCTION<br />
The in<strong>for</strong>mation environment in which libraries find themselves is<br />
continuously changing. The ways in which people today communicate, interact,<br />
acquire and share knowledge have changed due to advancements in the in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
and communication technologies. Hence the libraries must compete <strong>for</strong> their survival.<br />
Libraries have to integrate several technologies in their services in order to attract the<br />
users. Library 2.0 is the new concept where users are not only in<strong>for</strong>mation consumers<br />
but also content creators. It is a library with out any boundaries and with the fullest<br />
participation of users as architects.<br />
2.INTERNET AND WEB 2.0<br />
The World Wide Web with its resilient infrastructure and its dominant<br />
interface in the <strong>for</strong>m of web browser has established itself as the window to the world<br />
of content. It has lead to the in<strong>for</strong>mation explosion to the globe. Web 2.0 is the a<br />
method by which data and services previously locked into individual web pages <strong>for</strong><br />
reading by the human beings can be liberated and then reused. The following are the<br />
important characteristics of web 2.0:<br />
• Web 2.0 allows data to be exposed, discovered and manipulated in a variety of<br />
ways distinct from the purpose of the application originally used to gain<br />
access.<br />
• Web 2.0 permits the building of virtual applications, drawing data and<br />
functionality from a number of different sources as appropriate.<br />
• Web 2.0 is participative. The traditional Web has tended to be somewhat onesided,<br />
with a flow of content from provider to viewer. Web 2.0 allows the<br />
users to actively participate online by means of blogging, sharing files, or<br />
equivalent.<br />
* Scientific In<strong>for</strong>mation Resource Division, <strong>Indira</strong> <strong>Gandhi</strong> <strong>Centre</strong> <strong>for</strong> <strong>Atomic</strong> <strong>Research</strong>, Kalpakkam,<br />
Tamilnadu -603 102 sound@igcar.gov.in<br />
106
• Web 2.0 applications work <strong>for</strong> the user, and are able to locate and assemble<br />
content that meets our needs as users, rather than <strong>for</strong>cing us to con<strong>for</strong>m to the<br />
paths laid out <strong>for</strong> us by content owners or their intermediaries.<br />
• Web 2.0 applications are modular, with developers and users able to pick and<br />
choose from a set of interoperating components in order to build something<br />
that meets their needs.<br />
• Web 2.0 is about sharing: code, content, ideas.<br />
• Web 2.0 is about communication and facilitating community. People<br />
communicate.<br />
• Web 2.0 is smart. Applications will be able to capture user knowledge and<br />
deliver services to satisfy their needs.<br />
• Web 2.0 is built upon Trust, whether that is trust placed in individuals, in<br />
assertions, or in the uses and reuses of data.<br />
3.THE WEB AS PLATFORM<br />
Like many important concepts, Web 2.0 doesn't have a hard boundary, but<br />
rather, a gravitational core. We can visualize Web 2.0 as a set of principles and<br />
practices that tie together a veritable solar system of sites that demonstrate some or all<br />
of those principles, at a varying distance from that core.<br />
Figure 1 shows a "meme map" of Web 2.0 that was developed at a<br />
brainstorming session during FOO Camp, a conference at O'Reilly Media. The basic<br />
principle of web 2.0 was the web as the plat<strong>for</strong>m. Table 1 shows the web 2.0 services<br />
as compared with web 1.0<br />
Fig 1:<br />
Web 2.0 Meme<br />
Map<br />
107
Web 1.0 Web 2.0<br />
DoubleClick --> Google AdSense<br />
Ofoto --> Flickr<br />
Akamai --> BitTorrent<br />
mp3.com --> Napster<br />
Britannica Online --> Wikipedia<br />
personal websites --> blogging<br />
evite --> upcoming.org and EVDB<br />
domain name speculation --> search engine optimization<br />
page views --> cost per click<br />
screen scraping --> web services<br />
publishing --> participation<br />
content management systems --> wikis<br />
directories (taxonomy) --> tagging ("folksonomy")<br />
stickiness --> syndication<br />
Table 1: Web 1.0 vs. Web2.0<br />
Every one of the technologies listed in Web 2.0 above – RSS, Wikis,<br />
blogging, personalization, streaming media, ratings, alerts, folksonomies, tagging,<br />
social networking software, and the rest could be useful in an enterprise, institutional,<br />
or community environment and could be driven or introduced by the library.<br />
4.WEB 2.0 + LIBRARY = LIBRARY 2.0?<br />
Libraries were once the guardians of knowledge, and the point at which those<br />
seeking existing knowledge would engage with it. With the rise of Google, Amazon,<br />
Wikipedia and more, there is an oft-stated fear that many users, much of the time, will<br />
bypass processes and institutions that they perceive to be slow, unresponsive,<br />
unappealing and irrelevant in favor of a more direct approach to services offered by<br />
others that just might be 'good enough' <strong>for</strong> what they need to do. Libraries should be<br />
seizing every opportunity to challenge these perceptions, and to push their genuinely<br />
valuable content, services and expertise out to places where people might stand to<br />
benefit from them; places where a user would rarely consider drawing upon a library<br />
<strong>for</strong> support.<br />
Web 2.0's principles and technology offers libraries many opportunities to<br />
serve their patrons better, and to reach out beyond the walls and Web sites of the<br />
institution to reach potential beneficiaries where they happen to be, and in association<br />
with the task that they happen to be undertaking. With these approaches, we take our<br />
existing wealth of data, and make it work much harder. We begin to break down the<br />
internal silos of the separate systems within a single library, and connect those<br />
components to one another, and to related components and services far beyond the<br />
building. At a technical level, we make it possible <strong>for</strong> searchers to be presented with<br />
choices to view online, borrow locally, request from afar, buy or sell as<br />
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appropriate to their needs and circumstance.<br />
The beauty of Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 is the level of integration and<br />
interoperability that is designed into the interface through the library portal or<br />
intranet. That’s where the real power to enhance the user experience is. In order to<br />
take advantage of the concepts inherent in Library 2.0, all the advanced functionality<br />
and features of web 2.0 should be integrated into the content.<br />
5.LIBRARY 1.0 VS LIBRARY 2.0<br />
In terms of library services, we can compare the library 1.0 with library 2.0 as follows<br />
Closed stacks --> Open stacks<br />
Collection development --> Library suggestion box<br />
Preorganized ILS(Integrated Library Services) --> User tagging<br />
Walk-in services --> Globally available services<br />
“Read-only” catalog --> Amazon-style comments<br />
Print newsletter mailed out --> Team-built blog<br />
Easy = dumb users --> Easy = smart systems<br />
Limited service options --> Broad range of options<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation as commodity --> In<strong>for</strong>mation as conversation<br />
Monolithic applications --> Flexible, adaptive modules<br />
Mission focus is output --> Mission focus is outcome<br />
Focus on bringing ‘em in --> Focus on finding the user<br />
ILS is core operation --> User services are core<br />
With library 2.0, the collection becomes virtual that is library without walls.<br />
Importantly, the traditional library read only catalogues will become Amazon style<br />
comments where the user comments, reviews and feed backs will be used <strong>for</strong><br />
enhancing the catalog. In<strong>for</strong>mation is viewed as a tow way process in library 2.0<br />
where in the users search, investigate and participate in the creation and re-mixing of<br />
the new content. The mission focus is not on the mere output but on the outcome of<br />
an organization. To summarize, library 2.0 focuses on user and how to attract the user<br />
as in<strong>for</strong>mation consumer as well as contributor.<br />
6. CONCLUSION<br />
Library 2.0 put great challenges be<strong>for</strong>e the librarian to redefine their<br />
traditional services and approach. Librarian 2.0 will be the pioneer of the in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
age and he continuously strives to understand, learn and implement the library 2.0<br />
functionalities. He is responsible to connect people and technology and in<strong>for</strong>mation in<br />
context. He doesn’t shy away from non- traditional cataloging and classification<br />
109
and chooses tagging, tag clouds, folksonomies, and user-driven content descriptions<br />
and classifications where appropriate. He connects the users to expert discussions,<br />
conversations, and communities of practice and participates there as well and uses the<br />
latest tools of communication (such as Skype) to connect content, expertise,<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation coaching, and people. He encourages user driven metadata and user<br />
developed content and commentary and understands the wisdom of crowds and the<br />
emerging roles and impacts of the blogosphere, Web syndicasphere and wikisphere. It<br />
is essential that librarians start preparing to become Librarian 2.0 now.<br />
REFERENCES<br />
1. What is Web 2.0 : Design Patterns and business model <strong>for</strong> the nest generation of the<br />
software, Tim O’Reilly 2005.<br />
URL : http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-<br />
20.html<br />
2. Web 2.0 Building the New Library, Paul Miller, ARIADNE Issue 45 2005.<br />
URL: http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue45/miller/<br />
3. Beyond Library 2.0, Walt Craw<strong>for</strong>d, Cites & Insights Vol 6. Issue 3 2006.<br />
URL: http://cites.boisestate.edu/civ6i3.pdf<br />
4. Web 2.0, Library 2.0, and Librarian 2.0: Preparing <strong>for</strong> the 2.0 World ,Stephen Abram,<br />
SirsiDynix OneSource, Vol2, Issue 1 2006.<br />
URL: http://www.imakenews.com/sirsi/e_article000505688.cfm<br />
5. Library 2.0 The challenge of disruptive innovation, Paul Miller, Talis White Paper<br />
2006.<br />
110
ROLE OF ELECTRONIC SURVEILLANCE AND<br />
SECURITY SYSTEMS IN ACADEMIC LIBRARIES<br />
L. Rajendran * and G. Rathinasabapathy **<br />
Abstract<br />
Academic libraries are not always safe and secure places and they are facing a wide variety<br />
of security concerns which includes the theft and mutilation of library materials. The results of a<br />
number of library studies reported that a majority of the academic libraries across the globe are<br />
having problems with security. However, it is the duty of any academic library to keep the library<br />
buildings, shelves and stacks open and free without losing items to make available or putting<br />
individuals at unacceptable risk from the malicious, avaricious or senseless acts of others. Arresting or<br />
expelling a member <strong>for</strong> material theft or book/periodical mutilation is common in libraries of<br />
developed countries. But, things are different in Indian conditions. In this context, the technological<br />
advances made it possible to install electronic security systems to overcome the security threats to<br />
some extent. These electronic security systems typically provide alarm notification to the appropriate<br />
authorities, entry control, and site surveillance. The major elements of these systems include burglar<br />
protection, collection security, access control, and video surveillance. This paper attempts to discuss<br />
various electronic surveillance and security systems available to ensure academic library security.<br />
Keywords: Electronic Surveillance, Security Systems, Collection Security, Access Control,<br />
Video Surveillance, Academic Library<br />
1. INTRODUCTION<br />
A library <strong>for</strong>ming part of or attached to a university, college or any<br />
educational institution is known as academic library. Academic libraries differ from a<br />
public library and special library in purpose and of its services. The main function of<br />
an academic library is to function as an auxiliary to parent institution in carrying out<br />
its objectives mainly the education. Library is an important intellectual resource of the<br />
academic community and helps them <strong>for</strong> their self-development to fulfill the<br />
curriculum requirements and to promote studies and research.<br />
2. ACADEMIC LIBRARY<br />
The importance of academic libraries was aptly recorded by the Education<br />
Commission headed by Prof. D.S. Kothari in its report that “the academic library<br />
should provide library facilities and services necessary <strong>for</strong> success of all <strong>for</strong>mal<br />
programmes of instruction, open the door to the world of knowledge that lies beyond<br />
the boundaries of own field of qualification and bring books, students and scholars,<br />
together under conditions which encourage reading pleasure, self discovery, personal<br />
growth and the sharpening of intellectual curiosity”.<br />
There<strong>for</strong>e, the academic library has to build a strong collection in the <strong>for</strong>m of<br />
physical, electronic and digital to cater to the knowledge requirements of students,<br />
faculty members, research scholars and scientists of the academic institution. The<br />
digital collection can easily be preserved on computer systems or other suitable media<br />
* Assistant Librarian, Department of Library Science, Madras Veterinary College, Chennai – 600 007<br />
** Assistant Librarian, Tamilnadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Chennai – 600 007<br />
111
and access can be given through computer networks, local area networks, wide area<br />
networks or the Internet. The digital content cannot be tampered or stolen by the<br />
library users as the original content is available with the server with back up. But, it<br />
is not so easy in the case of physical collections. The library has to preserve the<br />
physical collections <strong>for</strong> the use of its clients as well as preserve <strong>for</strong> future generations<br />
<strong>for</strong> which it has to overcome the unethical means of losses.<br />
3. LIBRARY SECURITY<br />
It is important to provide a safe and security facility <strong>for</strong> library staff, library<br />
resources and equipment, and library users. It is also important that the security<br />
system should per<strong>for</strong>m these functions as seamlessly as possible, without interfering<br />
with the library’s objective of easily and simply providing user services. Library<br />
security includes safety of staff, users and the protection of the library and its<br />
collections, fire protection and disaster planning. But, this paper restricted its scope<br />
only to the protection of the library collection from theft and vandalism.<br />
4. UNETHICAL MEANS OF LOSSES<br />
Most of the academic libraries follow open access system which allows its<br />
users directly to the stakes to ensure optimum utilization of the knowledge resources<br />
available in the library. Due to this, books are often found on the library shelves with<br />
pages torn from the spine. Sometimes books are damaged beyond repair and almost<br />
all academic libraries including libraries in advanced countries are suffering from<br />
book or document theft by its members. Theft of library materials is not a new<br />
problem, not just an Indian problem. It is a universal problem which includes<br />
developed countries including USA, UK and European Union.<br />
It was traditional, particularly be<strong>for</strong>e the invention of the printing press when<br />
books were all hand written manuscripts, to letter a curse into the book to prevent<br />
theft. Two such letters of curse are as follows:<br />
For him that Stealeth a Book from this Library,<br />
Let it change into a Serpent in his hand and rend him.<br />
Let him be struck with Palsy and all his members blasted.<br />
Let him languish in Pain crying aloud <strong>for</strong> Mercy,<br />
Let there be no Surcease to his Agony till he sink to Dissolution.<br />
Let Bookworms gnaw his Entrails in token of the Worm that dieth not,<br />
When at last he goeth to his final Punishment,<br />
Let the flames of hell consume him <strong>for</strong> ever and aye.<br />
Steal not this Book my honest Friend<br />
For fear the Galows should be your hend,<br />
And when you die the Lord will say<br />
And wares the Book you stole away?<br />
-Old letters of curse on Book Thieves<br />
Un<strong>for</strong>tunately, these curses did not seem to have worked very well, as the<br />
books also had to be chained into place. Even chains had limited effect as we can<br />
112
witness many ancient libraries where there are still chains in place, but no books.<br />
Further, some of the library users willfully, maliciously, or wantonly write<br />
upon, injure, deface, tear, cut, mutilate or destroy library books or documents in other<br />
<strong>for</strong>ms. Because of the rising incidence of library theft and mutilation of library<br />
materials, libraries across the globe are suffering serious losses of books and other<br />
library property.<br />
In order to assure that the library materials are available <strong>for</strong> genuine use, the<br />
American Library Association and Association of College and <strong>Research</strong> Libraries<br />
have come out with some guidelines.<br />
5. ALA AND ACRL GUIDELINES<br />
The American Library Association (ALA) and the Association of College and<br />
<strong>Research</strong> Libraries (ACRL) have come out with some guidelines to minimize the<br />
material theft in libraries in 2003. The following are the gist of guidelines proposed<br />
by ALA and ACRL.<br />
1. Appointment of a Library Security Officer<br />
2. Forming a Security Planning Group<br />
3. Communication with the Public Relations Department<br />
4. Communication with Law En<strong>for</strong>cement Agencies<br />
5. Work <strong>for</strong> Institutional and Legislatic Support<br />
6. Report Library Groups<br />
The guidelines also suggest installation of security cameras that cover special<br />
collections reading rooms and any access points that security professionals deem<br />
appropriate. If security camera uses tapes, these should be retained <strong>for</strong> at least one<br />
month.<br />
6. LIBRARY SECURITY SYSTEMS<br />
Library collections and other materials can be secured both by physical<br />
(non-electronic) and electronic security systems which are detailed below.<br />
Physical Security Systems (Non-Electronic)<br />
The library security should be planned when the library building is constructed<br />
wherever possible, through architectural considerations which includes the site design<br />
and building design.<br />
Further, the security personnel should be employed to undertake patrol within<br />
the library and to en<strong>for</strong>ce appropriate library access at the main lobby. Inspection<br />
of bags and other belongings of library users while entering and leaving the library,<br />
by security/library staff is being followed in almost all libraries. This will avoid<br />
unethical loss of library materials to some extent. Most of the libraries do not allow<br />
the users with notebooks, record notes, etc. and they insist depositing such things in<br />
the property counters provided exclusively <strong>for</strong> this purpose. They permit the users to<br />
take loose sheets or small scribbling pads only inside the library.<br />
Visual inspection by library staff through floor walks is another manual<br />
method followed by librarians to overcome the unethical practices viz., malicious<br />
113
writes, injures, defaces, cuts, mutilates and destruction of library materials within the<br />
library premises.<br />
The other non-electronic security systems include various types of window<br />
protection with locks, grills, guards, bars, screens and films, door protection, display<br />
case protection and dummy security devises which ensure that criminals and<br />
miscreants do not have uncontrolled access to the library collections.<br />
Electronic Security Systems<br />
In the middle ages, books were protected by curses as there were no<br />
electronic security systems. But, today, we have electronic security systems which can<br />
help the libraries to control, minimize or avoid library material theft and unethical<br />
losses.<br />
Electronic security systems are not only available in advanced countries like<br />
USA and UK. They are available in the developing countries as well. The following<br />
are some of the major electronic security systems available <strong>for</strong> libraries viz., (a)<br />
Electromagnetic System; (b) Electronic Surveillance Cameras; and (c) Radio<br />
Frequency IDentification (RFID) System.<br />
Electro-Magnetic System<br />
The Electro-magnetic (EM) security system is little bit old technology which<br />
was used in libraries <strong>for</strong> decades. It is dominant in Europe and used by many libraries<br />
around the world. In this technology, a magnetic, iron-containing strip with an<br />
adhesive layer is attached to the library material. This strip is not removed at<br />
checkout; it is simply deactivated by a scanner that uses a specific highly intense<br />
magnetic field. One of the advantages of the EM strip is that it can be re-activated and<br />
used at a low cost.<br />
Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) System<br />
RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) is the latest technology widely used<br />
by academic libraries to combat library material theft. RFID-based systems move<br />
beyond security to become tracking systems that combine security with more efficient<br />
tracking of materials throughout the library, including easier and faster charge and<br />
discharge, inventorying, and materials handling.<br />
RFID is a combination of radio-frequency-based technology and microchip<br />
technology. The in<strong>for</strong>mation contained on microchips in the tags affixed to library<br />
materials is read using radio frequency technology regardless of item orientation or<br />
alignment and distance from the item is not a critical factor except in the case of<br />
extra-wide exit gates. The corridors at the building exit(s) can be as wide as four feet<br />
because the tags can be read at a distance of up to two feet by each of two parallel exit<br />
sensors.<br />
RFID tags replace both the EM security strips and barcode. It simplifies user<br />
self check-out and check-in. It can handle any type of material including video and<br />
audio tapes. RFID anti-theft detection is really innovative and safe. It ensures highspeed<br />
inventory and identification of items that are out of proper order in the library<br />
collection.<br />
RFID security system has been installed in the Libraries of Indra <strong>Gandhi</strong><br />
<strong>Centre</strong> <strong>for</strong> <strong>Atomic</strong> <strong>Research</strong> (IGCAR), Kalpakkam and Anna University, Chennai.<br />
114
The library authorities reported that this system is really very useful <strong>for</strong> them to<br />
ensure better security to the valuable collection of their libraries.<br />
The RFID system offers the following advantages to the library managers and<br />
users;<br />
• Reduction in the amount of time required to per<strong>for</strong>m circulation operations<br />
• Simplified user self-charging and discharging<br />
• Highly reliable (up to 100% detection rate)<br />
• High-speed inventorying<br />
• Automated materials handling<br />
• Long tag life<br />
7. ELEMENTS OF ELECTRONIC SECURITY SYSTEMS<br />
The use of electronic security equipment components typically provides alarm<br />
notification to the appropriate authority, entry control, and site surveillance. The<br />
major elements of any electronic security system include (a) Burglar protection; (b)<br />
Collection security; (c) Access control and (d) Video surveillance.<br />
Burglar Protection<br />
A burglar protection system includes sensors to detect an intrusion, alarms,<br />
and notification to the appropriate authorities. There are different ways of classifying<br />
the types of sensor systems. Sensors can be active or passive, covert or visible,<br />
volumetric or line detection. They can also be defined by their mode of application.<br />
Active sensors transmit some type of energy and detect a change in the received<br />
energy created by the presence or motion of the intruder. Passive sensors detect some<br />
type of energy emitted by the intruder, or detect a change of some natural field of<br />
energy caused by the intruder. Covert sensors are hidden from view and visible<br />
sensors are in plain view. Volumetric sensors detect intrusion in a volume of space,<br />
where line detection sensors detect intrusion across a line.<br />
Collection Security<br />
There are many methods of ensuring that no materials leave the library<br />
without being checked out. These systems always contain a security device that is<br />
placed on the materials(including books, magazines, videocassettes, audiocassettes,<br />
CDs, and DVDs) as well as a detection device that is typically located at all library<br />
exits. The detection devices must be safe <strong>for</strong> magnetic media and usually have audible<br />
and/or visible alarms. If desired, the audible alarm can be a voice alarm. There are<br />
two major methods currently used <strong>for</strong> detection: electromagnetic detection and radio<br />
frequency identification (RFID).<br />
Electronic Access Control<br />
Electronic access technology is the best system <strong>for</strong> controlling access to<br />
library buildings, facilities, and rooms. Authorized people are allowed to enter a<br />
controlled area by automatic unlocking of the door. Plastic access cards are<br />
inexpensive and software can be programmed to restrict access to certain areas while<br />
recording the time, date, and location of authorized and unauthorized access attempts.<br />
For extra security, access control can be used in conjunction with video surveillance<br />
to control and monitor large facilities. Access cards can be integrated as photo ID<br />
cards <strong>for</strong> library employees and can be used as temporary “keys” <strong>for</strong> library clientele<br />
115
to have access to restricted areas. The access system also can be used <strong>for</strong> monitoring<br />
employee time and attendance, security patrols of the property, and can limit access to<br />
sensitive areas, in<strong>for</strong>mation, or equipment. It has been proved that electronic access<br />
control systems enhance safety and protect valuable library assets.<br />
Video surveillance<br />
Nowadays video surveillance and closed-circuit television (CCTV) systems<br />
serve as a way to monitor and record security, deter crime, and ensure safety in<br />
academic libraries. Advances in CCTV technology and reduction in costs have also<br />
made video surveillance a cost-effective management tool <strong>for</strong> academic libraries.<br />
Academic libraries can use CCTV to identify visitors and employees, monitor work<br />
areas, deter theft, and ensure the security of the premises and other facilities. The<br />
system can also be used to monitor and record evidence on clientele and employee<br />
misconduct. CCTV systems are quickly becoming one of the most important and<br />
economical security and safety tools available to libraries.<br />
8. PROS AND CONS OF ESS<br />
Electronic Security Systems (ESS) were felt by the majority of library<br />
authorities to be effective in reducing levels of theft, and cost effective too and they<br />
offer the following advantages.<br />
• Effective in reducing levels of theft of library materials<br />
• Effective in controlling the unethical practices within the Library premises<br />
• Cost effective<br />
• Easy to install and maintain<br />
Though the ESS offers many advantageous, it is not af<strong>for</strong>dable to all libraries<br />
as installation and maintenance of such systems require huge money. However, while<br />
considering the value of library materials, it is the need of the hour to install such<br />
systems to prevent unethical losses occurred in academic libraries.<br />
9. CONCLUSION<br />
Academic libraries should create and implement security policies, procedures<br />
and plans in an effective and efficient manner. As the price of books and journals is<br />
rising exponentially, and the libraries are to diversify into other expensive ‘non-book’<br />
materials, not <strong>for</strong>getting the latest technology, it is the need of the hour to the<br />
academic library to consider installation of electronic security systems to prevent and<br />
minimize the unethical losses occurred to the academic library collections. Further,<br />
there is no point in spending millions of rupees on new acquisitions of in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
resources without installing such security systems.<br />
REFERENCES<br />
1. American Library Association. "Guidelines Regarding Thefts in Libraries." (2005).<br />
Available at http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlstandards/guidelinesregardingthefts. htm<br />
(Accessed 05-06-<strong>2007</strong>)-<br />
2. Brown, K.E. and Patkus, B.L. (2003). “Collections Security: Planning and Prevention<br />
<strong>for</strong> Libraries and Archives.” Available at http://www.nedcc.org/plam3/tleaf312.htm<br />
(Accessed 01-06-<strong>2007</strong>)<br />
3. Burrows, J. and Cooper, D. (1992). “Theft and Loss from UK Libraries:<br />
116
A National Survey”. Home Office Police <strong>Research</strong> Group, Crime Prevention Unit<br />
Paper No.37,Home Office Police <strong>Research</strong> Group<br />
4. Jadhav, M.N. and Kulkarni, S. (2000). Electronic Security: A Case Study of IIT,<br />
Bombay Central Library. In: Proceedings of the CALIBER 3. Available at<br />
www.library.iitb.ac.in/~mnj/caliber3.pdf (Accessed on 10-06-<strong>2007</strong>).<br />
5. Kothari, D.S. (1966). “Education Commission Report”, University Grants<br />
Commission, New Delhi.<br />
6. Rathinasabapathy, G. (2005). Application of Radio Frequency Identification<br />
Technology (RFID) in Libraries. In: Proceedings of the VII Tamilnadu Librry<br />
Conference, Dr.MGR-JCFW, Chennai. TLA.<br />
7. White, M.H. (2004). “It’s Easy Mmmkay.” www.marlboro.edu/resources/<br />
library/docs/citizen_article32304.html (Accessed 07-06-<strong>2007</strong>)<br />
117
Internet Usage by <strong>Research</strong> Scholars and Faculty in<br />
Sciences: A study of M D University, Rohtak<br />
Sanjay K Kaushik * and Vijendra Singh **<br />
Abstract<br />
Personal computers have played a vital role in our everyday lives today. Everywhere, right<br />
from the retail shops to the <strong>Atomic</strong> <strong>Research</strong> centres, computers are being used. The growth in<br />
popularity and networking of computers led the phenomenon called Internet. Internet is believed to be<br />
a very powerful tool <strong>for</strong> in<strong>for</strong>mation searching. Today from teens to old persons, everyone is using<br />
internet. The researchers and faculty in the discipline of sciences are not exception to it. The present<br />
paper reports the results of a study through questionnaire conducting on the research scholars and<br />
faculty members in science discipline of M D University, Rohtak. The results indicate that 96.55%<br />
respondents have the knowledge of computers. Majority of respondents know the basic tools and<br />
techniques of Internet. All the respondents make use of internet. The purpose of using INTERNET is<br />
sending and receiving e-mail, visiting websites, chatting, reading newspaper, online learning and<br />
accessing the e-journals, etc. As many as <strong>for</strong>ty-six respondents are strongly agreed that internet is<br />
useful in their study and research. The internet facility available in central library is being used more<br />
frequently by the researchers and faculty in sciences as compared to other places of internet like cyber<br />
café, etc. Thirty-one respondents spend one hour daily on internet surfing in central library, whereas<br />
sixteen spend half an hour daily. While comparing on the basis of their sex, it is found that the Chisquare<br />
value of Sex X Need <strong>for</strong> training is 6.495, the degree of freedom is 2 and the significance is<br />
.039. Hence there is a significant difference among the respondents on the basis of their sex as far as<br />
the need <strong>for</strong> training on internet use is concerned.<br />
1. INTRODUCTION<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation touches all human activity and is communicated in a<br />
multitude of ways, which includes speech, pictures, video, text, etc. Access to<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation is generally recognized as contributing significantly to the efficiency of<br />
any organization. Recent developments in computer, communication and networking<br />
technology have given new meaning to in<strong>for</strong>mation retrieval systems. Today<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation sharing is achieved through networks. The network of network on the<br />
global scale is known as the Internet, the in<strong>for</strong>mation super highway, and it is growing<br />
at the rate of 10 percent monthly, connecting 1,300,000 domains having about 500<br />
million users. Of all the technological developments that have taken place in the last<br />
century, the Internet is the one that has had the most profound impact globally. The<br />
geographical boundaries and distances, which used to act as barriers in the way of free<br />
exchange of data and in<strong>for</strong>mation, have been rendered irrelevant. As a natural<br />
corollary, the Internet has also affected the way one earns and www (World Wide<br />
Web) dot com has opened up new avenues & opportunities, by which a person, with<br />
the right skill set and drive, can earn from the com<strong>for</strong>ts of ones home. Logon to the<br />
Internet, go to any site and here we are in a world of our own, in which we will be lost<br />
<strong>for</strong> the time we work on it, a world full of fun, excitement, styles and a world beyond<br />
imagination.<br />
*<br />
**<br />
Assistant Librarian, M D University, Rohtak-124001.<br />
E-mail: kaush_s@rediffmail.com<br />
Assistant Librarian, HINDALCO industries Ltd., Renukoot, Distt. Sonebhadra.<br />
118
Internet is the largest worldwide network linking more than 140 countries with<br />
3 million host computers. It is a network of networks. The primary mission of the<br />
Internet is communication – of ideas, work, play – we name it. Everything else is a<br />
means towards that end. The research scholars and faculty members of any research<br />
organization make use of internet. The present study is aimed to find out the usage of<br />
internet facility available in Central Library of M D University, Rohtak by the<br />
research scholars and faculty members in the filed of sciences.<br />
2. OBJECTIVES<br />
The specific objectives of the study are as under:<br />
• To determine computer literacy among research scholars & faculty members.<br />
• To identify their awareness about internet & its tools.<br />
• To determine the use of internet in their study & research work.<br />
• To assess internet facilities provided by the central library.<br />
• To study their purpose of using the Internet.<br />
• To study problems faced by them in using Internet.<br />
3. RELATED STUDIES<br />
Biradar and others (2006) 1 conducted a study on internet usage by the<br />
students and faculties in Kuvempu University. The results indicated that 42.1 %<br />
students use internet twice a week and 31.25% faculties use it every day. The majority<br />
of students as well as faculties use internet <strong>for</strong> study/ teaching purpose. The favorite<br />
place <strong>for</strong> using internet is library followed by commercial places. A thumping<br />
majority of respondents are satisfied with internet sources and services. Asemi<br />
(2005) 2 shows that all the respondents were using the Internet frequently because all<br />
faculties were provided connection to the Internet. It was revealed that the researchers<br />
of the university were getting quality in<strong>for</strong>mation through the Internet. Fifty-five<br />
percent of the respondents searched <strong>for</strong> scientific in<strong>for</strong>mation through the Internet<br />
because the university library had provided access to various databases and online<br />
journals <strong>for</strong> all the students and staff. Mishra, Yadav and Bisht (2005) 3 conducted a<br />
study to know Internet utilization pattern of the undergraduate students of G B Pant<br />
University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar. The findings of the study<br />
indicated that a majority of the students (85.7%) used the Internet. Out of the Internet<br />
users 67.7% were male students and 32.3% female students. The findings of the study<br />
also showed that 61.5% of the males and 51.6% of the females used Internet <strong>for</strong><br />
preparing assignments. A majority of the respondents i.e. 83.1% male and 61.3%<br />
female respondents indicated that they faced the problem of slow functioning of<br />
Internet connection.<br />
Robinson (2005) 4 examined the Internet use among African-American<br />
college students. The respondents were surveyed by using the 43-item questionnaire<br />
to determine the frequency of Internet. The results of the study indicated that most of<br />
the African-American college students (76%) had used the Internet <strong>for</strong> more than<br />
three years. The use of the Internet <strong>for</strong> most African-American college students<br />
occurred at school or at the work place with 49% of the responses at home. 47% of<br />
the responses indicated that they spent an average of two hours per day on-line. A<br />
small percentage of the students spent 5-6 hours per day on the Internet. 43% of the<br />
students used the Internet primarily to learn and find school resources. Rajeev<br />
119
Kumar and Amritpal Kaur (2004) 5 studied the use of internet by teachers and<br />
students in Shaheed Bhagat Singh College of Engineering & Technology, Ferozepur<br />
(Panjab). They found that 46.7% teachers and 36.7% students daily use the internet.<br />
About 90% respondents use internet at their college. Yahoo is found as the favorite<br />
search engine. Only 31.7% respondents were fully satisfied, whereas 36.7% were<br />
partially satisfied with internet facilities.<br />
4. METHODOLOGY<br />
The study has been conducted through the survey method of research.<br />
A structured questionnaire was designed and used <strong>for</strong> collecting the data. The sample<br />
<strong>for</strong> the study was selected purposefully because the research scholars and faculty in<br />
sciences have been noticed in the internet lab more frequently. The questionnaires<br />
were distributed among 92 research scholars and faculty members. Out of which as<br />
many as 58 filled in useable questionnaires were received back. The data so obtained<br />
was coded and analyzed with the help of SPSS (Statistical Package <strong>for</strong> Social<br />
Sciences). The data is also analyzed on the basis of independent variables like Status<br />
and Gender of the respondents.<br />
5. RESULTS<br />
First of all to use the internet the basic knowledge of computer is necessary.<br />
The study found that 96.55% i.e. fifty six out of fifty eight respondents have the basic<br />
knowledge of computers. Only two respondents mentioned that they do not have the<br />
basic knowledge of computers. All the research scholars and Lecturers have the basic<br />
knowledge of computers, only one <strong>Research</strong> Scholar and One Lecturer mentioned that<br />
they do not have the basic knowledge of computers. On the other hand all the male<br />
respondents have the basic knowledge of computers whereas only two female<br />
respondents do not have.<br />
Table 1<br />
Knowledge of computers<br />
Total<br />
No<br />
Yes<br />
Male 24 24<br />
Female 2 32 34<br />
Total 2 56 58<br />
Table 2<br />
Knowledge of Computer Total<br />
No<br />
Yes<br />
Professor 3 3<br />
Reader 9 9<br />
Lecturer 1 7 8<br />
<strong>Research</strong> scholar 1 37 38<br />
Total 2 56 58<br />
Twenty five respondents know the internet and its tools to full extent, whereas<br />
thirty two respondents know it to some extent. Only one respondent mentioned that<br />
she do not know the internet and its tools. Again all the males have the knowledge but<br />
120
only one female lacking of the same. However, all the respondents have mentioned<br />
that they use the internet. A thumping majority of respondents i.e. 79.33% use the<br />
internet <strong>for</strong> Sending and receiving e-mails, visiting websites, on-line learning and<br />
accessing e-documents. Eleven respondents use it only <strong>for</strong> on-line learning and<br />
accessing e-documents. Only one respondents use it only <strong>for</strong> sending and receiving e-<br />
mails.<br />
Table 3<br />
Knowledge of internet and its tools<br />
Total<br />
To full extent To some extent Not at all<br />
Male 12 12 24<br />
Female 13 20 1 34<br />
Total 25 32 1 58<br />
Table 4<br />
Purpose of Using internet<br />
Total<br />
Sending and<br />
receiving e-mails<br />
on-line learning and accessing<br />
e-documents<br />
All<br />
mentioned<br />
Male 1 4 19 24<br />
Female 7 27 34<br />
Total 1 11 46 58<br />
As far as the usefulness of the internet is concerned <strong>for</strong>ty six respondents<br />
mentioned that it is very useful in their research and teaching. Another twelve<br />
respondents mentioned that it is useful in their research and teaching. On the basis of<br />
their sex twenty one male respondents assessed the internet very useful whereas three<br />
as useful. Twenty nine female respondents assessed it as very useful and rest nine as<br />
useful. The results indicated that the research scholars and lecturers have assessed<br />
internet more useful as compared to the readers and professors.<br />
Table 5<br />
Usefulness of Internet<br />
Very useful Useful Not useful<br />
Total<br />
Male 21 3 0 24<br />
Female 25 9 0 34<br />
Total 46 12 0 58<br />
Thirteen respondents most frequently use the internet in the central library<br />
whereas twenty nine respondents use it frequently in the central library. Twelve<br />
respondents use internet occasionally in central library whereas only four respondents<br />
rarely use internet in central library. As many as six, thirteen, five male respondents<br />
and seven, sixteen, seven female respondents use internet in central library most<br />
frequently, frequently and occasionally respectively. Only four female respondents<br />
rarely use internet in central library. The research scholars have been found using<br />
internet in central library more frequently as compared to the faculty members. Only<br />
eight respondents most frequently use internet at a place other than the central library<br />
121
whereas fifteen respondents use it outside the central library frequently and same<br />
number rarely. Twenty respondents occasionally use internet at a place other than<br />
central library.<br />
Table 6<br />
Use of internet in central library<br />
Most Frequently Frequently Occasionally Rarely<br />
Total<br />
Male 6 13 5 24<br />
Female 7 16 7 4 34<br />
Total 13 29 12 4 58<br />
Table 7<br />
Use of internet at a place other than Central library<br />
Most Frequently Frequently Occasionally Rarely<br />
Total<br />
Male 3 8 9 4 24<br />
Female 5 7 11 11 34<br />
Total 8 15 20 15 58<br />
Thirty one respondents spend one hour daily on internet surfing in central<br />
library whereas sixteen spend less than half an hour daily. Only five respondents<br />
spend about two hour daily on internet surfing in central library whereas six<br />
respondents spend more than two hours daily. The results show that female<br />
respondents spend slightly more time on internet surfing in the central library as<br />
compared to male respondents. Eighteen respondents spend less than half an hour<br />
daily on internet surfing at a place other than the central library whereas twenty eight<br />
respondents spend one hour daily. Only five respondents spend about two hour daily<br />
on internet surfing at a place other than central library whereas seven spend more than<br />
two hours daily. Hence it can be stated that the research scholars and faculty in<br />
sciences use the internet at central library and at other places almost equally.<br />
Table 8<br />
Time spent daily in central library<br />
Total<br />
Less than half an hour About an<br />
hour<br />
About 2<br />
hours<br />
More than<br />
2 hours<br />
Male 8 14 2 24<br />
Female 8 17 3 6 34<br />
Total 16 31 5 6 58<br />
122
Table 9<br />
Time spent daily at a place other than central library<br />
Total<br />
Less than half an<br />
hour<br />
About an<br />
hour<br />
About 2<br />
hours<br />
More than 2<br />
hours<br />
Male 9 10 3 2 24<br />
Female 9 18 2 5 34<br />
Total 18 28 5 7 58<br />
Forty three (73.14%) respondents mentioned that the library do not provide<br />
any training on internet use whereas fifteen mentioned that it provides training.<br />
Eighteen respondents strongly feel that library should provide training on How to use<br />
internet? Thirty three respondents feel that library should provide such training. Only<br />
seven respondents feel that there is no need <strong>for</strong> such training. The female respondents<br />
feel more need <strong>for</strong> training as compared to the male respondents. However the authors<br />
are of the view that the library should conduct some <strong>for</strong>mal training programmes on<br />
internet use.<br />
Table 10<br />
Does library provide any training<br />
Total<br />
No<br />
Yes<br />
Male 18 6 24<br />
Female 25 9 34<br />
Total 43 15 58<br />
Table 11<br />
Need <strong>for</strong> training by library<br />
Strongly agree Agree Disagree<br />
Total<br />
Male 6 12 6 24<br />
Female 12 21 1 34<br />
Total 18 33 7 58<br />
Only four respondents are fully satisfied with the speed of internet in central<br />
library whereas thirty two respondents are little satisfied with the speed. Eighteen<br />
respondents are dissatisfied with the speed whereas four respondents are strongly<br />
dissatisfied with the speed. There is no significant difference on the basis of their<br />
gender and status as far as speed of internet in central library is concerned. Thirty two<br />
respondents are satisfied to some extent on the availability of nodes in the central<br />
library whereas only two respondents are fully satisfied. Another twelve respondents<br />
are little satisfied with the availability of nodes whereas eight respondents are not<br />
satisfied at all. However after this survey the internet lab in central library has been<br />
extended.<br />
123
Fully<br />
satisfied<br />
Table 12<br />
Satisfaction over speed of internet<br />
Little Dissatisfied Strongly<br />
satisfied<br />
dissatisfied<br />
Total<br />
Male 3 12 7 2 24<br />
Female 1 20 11 2 34<br />
Total 4 32 18 4 58<br />
Table 13<br />
Fully<br />
satisfied<br />
Satisfaction over availability of nodes<br />
Little Dissatisfied Strongly<br />
satisfied<br />
dissatisfied<br />
Total<br />
Male 1 13 6 4 24<br />
Female 1 23 6 4 34<br />
Total 2 36 12 8 58<br />
Sixteen respondents mentioned that the library staff in internet lab most<br />
frequently helps them whereas twenty respondents mentioned that it helps frequently.<br />
Sixteen respondents mentioned that library staff in internet lab occasionally helps<br />
them whereas six respondents mentioned that it never helps them.<br />
Table 14<br />
Helpfulness of library staff<br />
Most Frequently Frequently Occasionally Rarely<br />
Total<br />
Male 6 8 8 2 24<br />
Female 10 12 8 4 34<br />
Total 16 20 16 6 58<br />
6. CONCLUSION<br />
The results of the study indicate that the internet facilities in the central library<br />
are being well used by the research scholars and faculty in sciences. Although most of<br />
the users are well aware about the internet and its tools but still the library<br />
professionals can contribute a lot. As library professionals are well versed with<br />
indexing and searching techniques hence these techniques can be taught to the users<br />
of internet. The major problems of the respondents are down of internet server, speed<br />
of internet and timings of the internet lab. The library should take some steps <strong>for</strong><br />
enhancing the speed of internet and timings of the lab.<br />
124
REFERENCES<br />
1. Biradar (B S), Rajashekar (G R) and Sampath Kumar (B T). A study of internet usage<br />
by students and faculties in Kuvempu University. Library Herald. 44(4); December<br />
2006. pp 283-294.<br />
2. Asemi (A). In<strong>for</strong>mation searching habits of Internet users: A case study on the<br />
Medical Sciences University of Isfahan, Iran. Webology, 2(1).<br />
http://www.webology.ir/2005/v2n1/a10.html<br />
3. Mishra (O P), Yadava (Neelam) and Bisht (Kamini). Internet Utilization Pattern of<br />
Undergraduate Students. University News. 43(13); March 28-03 April 2005; pp. 8-12.<br />
4. Robinson (Jannie W). Internet Use among African-American College Students: An<br />
Exploratory Study. Retrieved from http://wwwlib.umi.com/<br />
dissertations/fullcit/3156015.<br />
5. Rajeev Kumar and Amritpal Kaur. Use of internet by Teachers and Students in<br />
Shaheed Bhagat Singh College of Engineering and Technology: A Case study.<br />
Journal of Library and In<strong>for</strong>mation Science. 29(1&2); June & December 2004; pp.<br />
81-94.<br />
125
In<strong>for</strong>mation Security: The role of<br />
DOI (Digital Object Identifier)<br />
N. Valarmathy * and K. Kaliyaperumal **<br />
1. INTRODUCTION<br />
Nowadays, Internet plays a vital role in the In<strong>for</strong>mation exchange. The<br />
consumer of the In<strong>for</strong>mation need relevant and authenticated In<strong>for</strong>mation where as<br />
the publisher needs copyright protection to the content. So, In<strong>for</strong>mation security is<br />
essential to protect the valuable in<strong>for</strong>mation from misuse and manipulations.<br />
Intellectual Property Right (IPR) comprises of all those things that come from human<br />
intellect whether they are ideas, inventions, words, music, theatre or art. This would<br />
include books, periodicals pamphlets etc that are subject to patent coverage.<br />
2. OBJECTIVES OF THIS PAPER<br />
Intellectual property is the fruitful or useful out come of the ef<strong>for</strong>ts of<br />
individual or intellectual creativity. If this ef<strong>for</strong>t can be allowed to exploit or copy by<br />
others, there will be adverse effect in the context of creativity. But, there are some<br />
arguments that the Important creative ef<strong>for</strong>ts should not be used <strong>for</strong> only individual,<br />
but it should be used <strong>for</strong> the betterment of social, technological and cultural<br />
development of the Nation. Thus, these rights will encourage human resources of the<br />
country <strong>for</strong> innovative and technical progress. However, there are some mechanisms<br />
and procedures available in the Digital environment to preserve the e- resources. This<br />
paper intend to focus on the pros and cons of the mechanism such as DOI (Digital<br />
Object Identifier)<br />
3. AN OVERVIEW OF EXISTING COPYRIGHT<br />
Copy right is a set of exclusive rights regulating the use of particular<br />
expression of an idea or in<strong>for</strong>mation. It is a most important type of Intellectual<br />
Property Right. The copy right policies are different from one country to another It<br />
protects skill, labor talent of an author who are responsible <strong>for</strong> publication of a<br />
document, a piece of music photograph, TV serials and other creative works.<br />
According to the copyright, the owner has right to prevent others from<br />
copying selling, hiring out per<strong>for</strong>ming broadcasting or amending the work<br />
/innovations publications developed by them. The copy right law is subject to<br />
international treaties. The important international treaties are Berne convention and<br />
Universal copyright convention. Berne convention allows following minimum basic<br />
copyright laws and allowing <strong>for</strong> reciprocal protection <strong>for</strong> Nationals of different<br />
countries. <strong>for</strong> example, a UK author can enjoy the US copyright laws and as well as<br />
USA author enjoy UK copyright laws. But different countries follow different<br />
copyright laws. As a result, it is very difficult to have uni<strong>for</strong>m laws among them. And<br />
many authors advocated that infringement of laws is worse in the networked<br />
environment. Many opined that the establishment of single uni<strong>for</strong>m law throughout<br />
the World <strong>for</strong> networked environment will minimize copyright laws. But, it is not<br />
easy to establish such laws.<br />
* Anna University, Chennai 600 025<br />
** Madras University, Chennai 600 005<br />
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4. GENESIS OF DOI<br />
It is a simple method developed by Association of American Publishers. The<br />
existing ISSN and ISBN are not able to solve the above discussed problems, since<br />
they are in fixed number. The DOI has remarkable changes in the area of Digital<br />
Publishing. Iisa unique, reliable, internationally manageable content identifier which<br />
will be assigned when a article or content accepted <strong>for</strong> digital publications. Thus<br />
Norman Parking defined as “It is a unique identifier of a piece of content and a system<br />
to access that content digitally – in essence an ISSN <strong>for</strong> the 21 st century.<br />
In the year 1995, few scientific publishers joined together and introduced a<br />
unique identification system called PII (Publisher item Identifier). These scientific<br />
publishers such as American Institute of Physics, IEEE and Elsevier identified a list of<br />
characteristics <strong>for</strong> an online document identifier which solves many problems. Later<br />
in the year 1996AAP, International Publishers Association (IPA), Book Industry<br />
Communication (BIC) and other International Organizations are participated and<br />
constituted a committee called Enabling Technologies Committee. The Committee<br />
then accepted joint recommendations made by R.R Bowker &Co and the corporation<br />
<strong>for</strong> National <strong>Research</strong> Initiative (NRI) and thus the DOI has been managed<br />
international DOI foundation.<br />
5. AN OVERVIEW OF DOI (DIGITAL OBJECT IDENTIFIER)<br />
To solve the problems there is a requirement <strong>for</strong> development of new<br />
identification system. This demand results in the origin of DOI. Digital object<br />
identifier shortly called as DOI solves both the purposes of providing unique<br />
identification of contents and copy right protection. DOI is a standard <strong>for</strong> persistently<br />
identifying a piece of Intellectual property on a digital Network and associating with<br />
related data, Metadata in a structured extensible way. DOI has been called the<br />
barcode <strong>for</strong> Intellectual property like the physical barcode, they are enabling tools <strong>for</strong><br />
use through out supply chain to add value and save cost. The development and<br />
deployment of DOI was also designed to enable automated copyright management<br />
which should offer additional copyright protection, preserve data integrity and help<br />
prevent piracy.<br />
Structure of DOI<br />
Digital Object Identifier has the following structure<br />
• . Identifier<br />
o Prefix<br />
o Suffix<br />
• Directory<br />
• Database<br />
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Identifier<br />
Owner suffix<br />
10-1003 / 0-571-48053<br />
Prefix Suffix<br />
Identification of<br />
ownership/the agency<br />
which published the<br />
content<br />
Owner<br />
rights<br />
prefix<br />
Like ISBN, DOI . has a set DOI has a set of digits, in the sense the identifier<br />
is build with is build with two elements viz., prefix as first element and suffix as<br />
second element.<br />
Prefix: It consists of directory code and registrant’s code. The no 1003 given<br />
in the above diagram is related to publisher (the ownership) and this No is assisted by<br />
directory manager. All prefixes begin with 10(Directory code)<br />
Suffix: It begins with an optical code designator in square brackets which is<br />
helpful as signal to software. Many publishers preferred to use ISBN number as their<br />
suffix. It can be assigned to granularity of books, articles, album, song and any<br />
multimedia object, etc.<br />
DOI system depends directory, the resolves them to internet addresses which<br />
are internet URLS.<br />
Per<strong>for</strong>mance of DOI<br />
If a clientele clicks on a DOI then the message is sent to the central directory<br />
and the content will be sent to the clientele system after verifying the validity of the<br />
clientele If the object / content move other folder or other company server. The<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation will be sent to all the valid users along with new address.<br />
Database: In the database the publisher will have both content and as well as<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation about the content. The URL will hold DOI directory that will point to a<br />
response screen rather than to the digital object directly and it will be maintained by<br />
owner or publishers. DOI is a unique numbering system. Unique number will be<br />
assigned to each content and there is no possibility of using same to identify different<br />
content. To assign DOI number alphanumeric characters will be used.<br />
Metadata<br />
Metadata is an important component of the DOI. Each DOI is associated with a<br />
series of metadata, a set of bibliographical and commercial in<strong>for</strong>mation concerning<br />
the content (title, author, publication date, copyright, price, etc.) and its<br />
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position within the whole registrant's publishing offer (the belonging of a title to a<br />
series, of an article to a serial, the availability of one publication in more <strong>for</strong>mats<br />
and/or through different media, etc.). By means of metadata, the DOI configures not<br />
simply as an identifying string, but takes the <strong>for</strong>m of a powerful and unambiguous<br />
tool <strong>for</strong> data storage and exchange.<br />
Metadata, as well as the DOI they are associated to, are persistently connected to the<br />
object they describe, so they can be easily communicated to other subjects across the<br />
productive and distributive chain, enhancing a content producer's ability to trade<br />
electronically. Furthermore, metadata represent the key <strong>for</strong> the development of DOIbased<br />
services, such as transnational databases and search engines <strong>for</strong> different kinds<br />
of contents. Asserting that metadata are persistent does not mean they are<br />
unmodifiable: registrants may update metadata about their contents any time they<br />
wish (whether some publication data change, when the primary URL the DOI<br />
resolves to is modified, etc.).<br />
6. ADVANTAGES OF DOI<br />
• Persistent Identification: each DOI unequivocally and permanently identifies<br />
the object to which it is associated<br />
• Network Action ability: through Handle System technology, each DOI<br />
resolves to one or more web pages assigned by the publisher<br />
• Semantic Interoperability: metadata allow to unambiguously communicate - to<br />
any user, from any place, at any point of the productive/distributive chain - all<br />
the pieces of in<strong>for</strong>mation about the related objects and their hierarchical<br />
relationships<br />
• It helps to maintain online transactions of all kinds including E-Commerce and<br />
digital distribution<br />
• It is a model <strong>for</strong> online copyright and ways <strong>for</strong> copyright protection<br />
• It is a supercharged barcode <strong>for</strong> internet based resource.<br />
• It also supporting interlibrary lending and document delivery service.<br />
• It supports and useful <strong>for</strong> web OPAC<br />
7. DOI IN INDIAN CONTEXT<br />
Now E- Journals are widely used by many libraries in India, which requires<br />
link In<strong>for</strong>mation resources in meaningful way <strong>for</strong> optimum use by the end users.<br />
And also Internet Plays a vital role in the In<strong>for</strong>mation exhange, the publisher requires<br />
copyright protection. So, DOI is essential <strong>for</strong> all the libraries which are having digital<br />
publications. But assigning and maintaining DOI is costly. In India it is difficult to<br />
implement DOI system in all the Libraries, because lack of co ordination among the<br />
Publishers and libraries . The major drawback is that lack of technical knowhow.<br />
8. CONCLUSION<br />
DOI is the system <strong>for</strong> protecting intellectual l Properties that need continuous<br />
enhancement according to the development of hardware and software technologies.<br />
Irrespective of its benefits, it is also to remember that assigning DOIs and maintaining<br />
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is costly affair. However, it is a required phenomena <strong>for</strong> the digital environment.<br />
REFERENCES<br />
1. Prasad, K.N. Intellectual Property rights in In<strong>for</strong>mation systems, networks and<br />
services in India, ED by Neelamegham A and Prasad K.N. Ranaganathan center <strong>for</strong><br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation studies : Bangalore, 1998 Pp 31 -60<br />
2. Oppenheim, C et al. The Aslib guide to copyright , Aslib; London, 1994<br />
3. Norman Paskin discusses the DOI,OCLC , Newsletter 239: 1999 at<br />
http://www.ocic/new/n239/research/01/research.htm.<br />
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Cyber Crimes and In<strong>for</strong>mation Frauds: EMERGING<br />
CHALLENGES FOR LIS PROFESSIONALS<br />
G. Rathinasabapathy * and L. Rajendran*<br />
"The modern thief can steal more with a computer than with a gun. Tomorrow's terrorist may be<br />
able to do more damage with a keyboard than with a bomb".<br />
– National <strong>Research</strong> Council, "Computers at Risk", 1991.<br />
Abstract<br />
Remarkable achievements in the IT sector is really a matter of pride to India but the associated problem<br />
that is causing serious concern is the rapid raise in cyber crimes. With increased use of computers and Internet in<br />
homes and offices, there has been a proliferation of cyber crimes in India. Cyber crime which is also known as<br />
‘Internet crimes’ or ‘Computer crimes’ is any criminal activity that uses a computer either as an instrument, target<br />
or a means <strong>for</strong> perpetuating further crimes or offences or contraventions under any law. These offences involve not<br />
only the use of computers but the Internet, cyberspace and the tools and techniques of World Wide Web as well.<br />
While the worldwide scenario on cyber crime looks bleak, the situation in India is also not better. Major cyber<br />
crimes reported in India are denial of services, defacement of web sites, spam, computer virus and worms,<br />
pornography, cyber squatting, cyber stalking and phishing. Especially, cases of spam, hacking, cyber stalking and<br />
email fraud are rampant in India. In the first half of 2006 itself, around 1000 Indian websites were attacked. The<br />
Library and In<strong>for</strong>mation professionals are now handling huge databases, access to online journals and web-enabled<br />
online public access catalogues, etc. Further, most of the big libraries especially academic libraries are now having<br />
various kinds of networks like Local Area Network, Wide Area Network, etc. Library services are also being offered<br />
in networked digital environment. Hence, the Library and In<strong>for</strong>mation Science professional should also be aware of<br />
the cyber crimes and the ways and means to combat cyber crimes. In this context, this paper attempts to brief the<br />
cyber crimes, its relevance to LIS professionals and suggests some precautious measures to combat cyber crimes.<br />
Keywords: Cyber Crime; Computer Crime; Internet Crime; In<strong>for</strong>mation Frauds; LIS<br />
Professionals<br />
1. INTRODUCTION<br />
The use of computers, Internet and network based services have increased in the libraries<br />
of India. Indian libraries especially the academic and research libraries are widely using<br />
computers <strong>for</strong> various purposes viz. circulation, cataloguing, in<strong>for</strong>mation services, collection<br />
development and serial control.<br />
Integrated library automation software packages like SOUL, LIBSYS, AUTOLIB are<br />
being widely used by the libraries. Most of the academic and special libraries have their own<br />
web site and they provide Web enabled Online Public Access Catalogue (Web OPAC) services.<br />
Some universities and research institutes have already started their own Institutional Repositories<br />
* Madras Veterinary College Library, Vepery, Chennai – 600 007, Tamilnadu.<br />
131
(IR) and providing their own digital contents through Web. The number of digital libraries with<br />
web presence is increasing day by day. Accessing the library services over Local Area Network<br />
(LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN) and World Wide Web (WWW) become popular in Indian<br />
universities. Most of the multi-campus universities provide their library services through their<br />
Intranet connectivity.<br />
All Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) have already <strong>for</strong>med an electronic journal<br />
consortium in the name of INDEST and it is functioning well. A remarkable achievement in this<br />
sector is the UGC-INFONET, an electronic journal consortium of University Grants Commission<br />
of India, which provides access to thousands of electronic journals to more than one hundred<br />
universities in India. The CSIR is having its own journal consortium and the Indian Council of<br />
Agricultural <strong>Research</strong> which is the apex body <strong>for</strong> the 40 State Agricultural Universities (SAU)<br />
functioning in India is in the process of establishing Consortium <strong>for</strong> e-Resources in Agriculture<br />
(CeRA) to provide access to the electronic journals published in the area of Agricultural Sciences<br />
which will benefit all Agricultural Universities and ICAR institutes functioning in India. It is<br />
clear that the academic libraries in India are going more digital and the library services are being<br />
offered in networked digital environment.<br />
The above remarkable achievements made by Indian libraries in using computers, digital<br />
networks and in<strong>for</strong>mation technology is really a matter of pride to LIS professionals and others<br />
involved in this regard but the associated problem that is causing serious concern is the rapid<br />
raise in cyber crimes. With increased use of computers and Internet in homes and offices, there<br />
has been a proliferation of cyber crimes in India. Since the LIS professionals are now using huge<br />
computerized databases, e-mails, Internet, web-based networks, web-based OPACs, web-based<br />
LIS services, resource sharing through digital networks, etc. it is need of the hour to familiarize<br />
with the cyber crimes and in<strong>for</strong>mation frauds that are taking place in India. In a situation where<br />
around 1000 Indian web sites were attacked in the first half of 2006 itself, it is high time that the<br />
LIS professionals should equip themselves to combat cyber crimes. In this context, this paper<br />
attempts to brief the cyber crimes, its relevance to LIS professionals and suggests some<br />
precautious measures to combat cyber crimes.<br />
2. CYBER CRIMES<br />
The invention of the computers has opened new avenues not only <strong>for</strong> the LIS<br />
professionals but <strong>for</strong> the fraudsters as well. It is an evil having its origin in the growing<br />
dependence on computers in modern life. There is a great talk about the cyber crimes nowadays.<br />
The crimes such as frauds, <strong>for</strong>gery are traditional and the abuse of computer and the related<br />
electronic media has given birth to a gamut of new types of crimes generally known as ‘Cyber<br />
Crimes’ which has some peculiar features.<br />
Cyber crimes which are also known as ‘Computer crimes’ ‘Internet crimes’ can be<br />
defined as ‘any criminal activity that uses a computer either as an instrument, target or a means<br />
<strong>for</strong> perpetuating further crimes or offences or contraventions under any law’.<br />
The Cambridge dictionary defines Cyber Crimes as “Crimes committed with the use of<br />
computers or relating to computers, especially through the Internet”.<br />
These offences involve not only the use of computers but the Internet, cyberspace and the<br />
tools and techniques of World Wide Web as well. A simple definition of these crimes would be<br />
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“unlawful acts wherein the equipment trans<strong>for</strong>ming the in<strong>for</strong>mation be it a computer or a mobile<br />
is either a tool or a target or both”.<br />
Joseph-Marie Jacquard, who devised a loom which was capable of doing repetition of a<br />
series of steps in weaving of special fabrics, was discouraged by his own employees by acts of<br />
sabotage as they were feared that their traditional employment and livelihood were threatened by<br />
his device. This incident is treated as the ever first cyber crime in the history which had taken<br />
place in 1820.<br />
3. TYPES OF CYBER CRIMES<br />
Cyber crimes can be categorized in to four broad categories viz., (i) data-related crimes;<br />
(ii) network-related crimes; (iii) crimes of access; and (iv) computer-related crimes;<br />
3.1 Data-related crimes<br />
Data-related crimes include interception, modification, and theft.<br />
3.2 Network-related crimes<br />
Network-related crimes include interference and sabotage.<br />
3.3 Crimes of access<br />
Crimes of access include hacking and virus distribution;<br />
3.4 Computer-related crimes<br />
Computer-related crimes include aiding and abetting cyber criminals, computer<br />
fraud, and computer <strong>for</strong>gery.<br />
Duggal classified Cyber crimes into three major categories viz., (i) Cyber crimes against<br />
persons; (ii) Cyber crimes against persons; and (iii) Cyber crimes against property).<br />
3.5 Cyber crimes against persons<br />
Include various crimes like transmission of child-pornography, harassment of any<br />
one with the use of a computer such as e-mail<br />
3.6 Cyber crimes against property<br />
These crimes include computer vandalism (destruction of others' property),<br />
transmission of harmful programmes.<br />
3.6 Cyber crimes against Government<br />
Cyber-terrorism is one distinct kind of crime in this category.<br />
4. MAJOR CYBER CRIMES IN INDIA<br />
Cyber crimes have gained momentum in India only in the recent past. According to the<br />
Union Home Ministry of India, cyber crimes in India have sharply increased. There are no<br />
concrete statistics but, according to Duggal, an advocate of Supreme Court of India and an Cyber<br />
Law Expert, Indian corporate and government sites have been attacked or defaced more than 780<br />
times between February 2000 and December 2002.<br />
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As per the data of Home Ministry of India, 481 cases were filed under the IT Act in 2005<br />
and Gujarat ranks first in cyber crimes which is followed by Andra Pradesh. Gujarat, Karnataka<br />
and Punjab noted the sharpest increase in these crimes. It is also interesting to note that the<br />
number of cyber crimes in Andra Pradesh and Tamilnadu declined as compared the previous<br />
years. The following are some of the major types of cyber crimes came to light.<br />
4.1 Financial crimes<br />
Financial crimes are happening since time immemorial. But, the computer and the<br />
Internet have given a new face <strong>for</strong> these criminals. Cheating, Credit Card Frauds, Money<br />
laundering are the major crimes come under this category.<br />
Recently, a website offered to sell Alphonso mangoes at a throwaway price which was<br />
attracted a very few people. They have responded to and supplied the website with their credit<br />
card numbers. The dot com company actually sent the Alphonso mangoes to those ordered in the<br />
first phase. This thing was spread like wildfire which attracted thousands of people from all over<br />
the country. They have responded and ordered mangoes by providing their credit card numbers<br />
to the dot com operator. The web site owners took huge amounts of money using the credit card<br />
numbers and then fled who are not traceable.<br />
An employee of the Bank of India tapped his organisation’s computer network and<br />
gathered data on all keys pressed, including passwords, by monitoring the CCTV. Finally, he<br />
was caught.<br />
Even though the actual value of losses accruing to cyber crime in India might not be<br />
substantial, nearly 39 per cent of these cases are related to banks and financial institutions<br />
excluding those of the government departments. The inference here is that criminals find banks<br />
to be a lucrative target.<br />
4.2 Cyber pornography<br />
Cyber pornography crimes include pornographic websites; pornographic magazines<br />
produced using computers to publish and print the material and the Internet to download and<br />
transmit pornographic pictures, photos, writings etc.<br />
The Air Force Balbharati School case (Delhi) is a recent case comes under this category<br />
where a student of the School was teased by all his classmates <strong>for</strong> having a pockmarked face. He<br />
who is tired of the cruel jokes, decided to get back at his tormentors and scanned photographs of<br />
his classmates and teachers, morphed them with nude photographs and put them up on a website<br />
that he uploaded on to a free web hosting service. The father of one of the class girls featured on<br />
the website came to know about this and lodged a complaint with the police.<br />
In Mumbai a Swiss couple gathered slum children and then <strong>for</strong>ced them to appear <strong>for</strong><br />
obscene photographs. Then they upload these photographs to websites specially designed <strong>for</strong><br />
paedophiles. The Mumbai police arrested the couple under cyber pornography crime.<br />
4.3 Sale of illegal articles<br />
The law prohibits the sale of illegal articles but the Internet paves the way <strong>for</strong> the sale of<br />
illegal articles. This crime would include sale of narcotics, weapons and wildlife etc., by posting<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation on websites, auction websites, and bulletin boards or simply by using email<br />
communication. It has been reported that many auction sites in India are believed to be selling<br />
cocaine in the name of 'honey' or traditional medicine. The clip of the DPS students was kept <strong>for</strong><br />
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selling on the site called Bazee.com by a student from IIT Kharagpur is a recent case comes<br />
under this category.<br />
4.4 Online gambling<br />
Online gambling is a general term <strong>for</strong> gambling using the Internet. There are millions of<br />
websites which are hosted on servers abroad. They offer online gambling where gamblers upload<br />
funds to the online gambling company, make bets or play the games that it offers, and then cash<br />
out any winnings. In fact, it is believed that many of these websites are actually fronts <strong>for</strong> money<br />
laundering. Cases of hawala transactions and money laundering over the Internet have been<br />
reported.<br />
Recent Indian case about cyber lotto was very interesting. Kola Mohan has invented the<br />
story of winning the Euro Lottery. He himself created a website and an email address on the<br />
Internet with the address 'eurolottery@usa.net.' Whenever accessed, the site would name him as<br />
the beneficiary of the 12.5 million pound. After confirmation a Telgu newspaper published this<br />
as a news. Kola Mohan collected huge sums from the public as well as from some banks <strong>for</strong><br />
mobilization of the deposits in <strong>for</strong>eign currency. However, the fraud came to light when a cheque<br />
discounted by him with the Andhra Bank <strong>for</strong> Rs 1.73 million bounced. Mohan had pledged with<br />
Andhra Bank the copy of a bond certificate purportedly issued by Midland Bank, London stating<br />
that a term deposit of 12.5 million was held in his name.<br />
4.5 Intellectual Property crimes (or) Cybersquatting<br />
Recent researches indicate that Intellectual property crime or Cybersquatting is one of the<br />
fastest-growing areas of criminal activity in the world which include software piracy, copyright<br />
infringement, trademarks violations, theft of computer source code etc.<br />
In India, Satyam Vs. Siffy is the most widely known case which comes under this<br />
category. Bharti Cellular Ltd. filed a case in the Delhi High Court that some cyber squatters had<br />
registered domain names such as barticellular.com and bhartimobile.com with Network solutions<br />
under different fictitious names. The court directed Network Solutions not to transfer the domain<br />
names in question to any third party and the matter is sub-judice. Similar issues had risen be<strong>for</strong>e<br />
various High Courts earlier.<br />
4.6 Email spoofing<br />
A spoofed email is one that appears to originate from one source but actually has been<br />
sent from another source. e.g. Rama has an e-mail address rama@yahoo.org. His enemy, Ravana<br />
spoofs his e-mail and sends obscene messages to all her acquaintances. Since the e-mails appear<br />
to have originated from Rama, his friends could take offence and relationships could be spoiled<br />
<strong>for</strong> life. This kind of email spoofing is very common in India and recently one such incident took<br />
place <strong>for</strong> one of our LIS colleague. Email spoofing can also cause monetary damage.<br />
Email spoofing becomes a big problem in India. Gujarat Ambuja’s Executive case is a<br />
best example <strong>for</strong> this crime where he pretended to be a girl and cheated an NRI who is based at<br />
Abu Dhabi <strong>for</strong> crores of rupees by blackmailing tactics.<br />
4.7 Forgery<br />
Forgery has becoming a booming business in India. Counterfeit currency notes, postage<br />
and revenue stamps, mark sheets etc can be <strong>for</strong>ged using sophisticated computers, printers and<br />
scanners.<br />
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4.8 Cyber Defamation:<br />
Cyber defamation is nothing but defamation takes place with the help of computers and /<br />
or the Internet. e.g. someone publishes defamatory matter about someone on a website or sends<br />
e-mails containing defamatory in<strong>for</strong>mation to all of that person’s friends.<br />
India’s first case of cyber defamation was reported when a company’s employee started<br />
sending derogatory, defamatory and obscene e-mails about its Managing Director. The e-mails<br />
were anonymous and frequent, and were sent to many of their business associates to tarnish the<br />
image and goodwill of the company. Finally, the company was able to identify the employee<br />
with the help of a private computer expert and moved the Delhi High Court. The court granted an<br />
ad-interim injunction and restrained the employee from sending, publishing and transmitting e-<br />
mails, which are defamatory or derogatory to the plaintiffs.<br />
4.9 Cyber stalking<br />
Cyber stalking involves following a person’s movements across the Internet by posting<br />
messages on the bulletin boards frequented by the victim, entering the chat-rooms frequented by<br />
the victim, constantly bombarding the victim with emails etc.<br />
The first cyber stalking case filed by a lady was Ritu Kohli’s case. A friend of her<br />
husband gave her telephonic number in the general Internet chat room. The general Internet<br />
chatting facility is provided by some websites like MIRC and ICQ where any person can easily<br />
chat without disclosing his/her true identity. The friend of her husband also encouraged this<br />
chatters to speak in slang language to Mrs. Kohli. Finally the culprit was identified and taken<br />
be<strong>for</strong>e law.<br />
4.10 Email bombing<br />
Email bombing refers to sending a large number of emails to the victim resulting in the<br />
victim’s email account or mail servers crashing.<br />
Simla Housing Board case is of this kind where a <strong>for</strong>eigner who had been residing in<br />
Simla, India <strong>for</strong> almost thirty years wanted to avail of a scheme introduced by the Simla Housing<br />
Board to buy land at lower rates. But, his application was rejected by SHB on the grounds that<br />
the scheme was available only <strong>for</strong> citizens of India. The <strong>for</strong>eigner decided to take his revenge<br />
and started sending thousands of mails to the Simla Housing Board till the SHB’s servers<br />
crashed.<br />
4.11 Data diddling<br />
Data diddling is nothing but altering raw data just be<strong>for</strong>e it is processed by a computer<br />
and then changing it back after the processing is completed. The NDMC Electricity Billing<br />
Fraud Case that took place in 1996 is a typical example. The computer network was used <strong>for</strong><br />
receipt and accounting of electricity bills by the NDMC, Delhi. Collection of money,<br />
computerized accounting, record maintenance and remittance in he bank were exclusively left to<br />
a private contractor who was a computer professional. He misappropriated huge amount of funds<br />
by manipulating data files to show less receipt and bank remittance.<br />
4.12 Salami attacks<br />
Salami attacks are used <strong>for</strong> the commission of financial crimes preferably in financial<br />
institutions. The key here is to make the alteration so insignificant that in a single case it would<br />
136
go completely unnoticed. e.g. a bank employee inserts a program, into the bank’s servers, that<br />
deducts a small amount of money (say Rs. 5 a month) from the account of every customer. No<br />
account holder will probably notice this unauthorized debit, but the bank employee will make a<br />
sizeable amount of money every month.<br />
4.13 Denial of Service attack<br />
This involves flooding a computer resource with more requests than it can handle. This<br />
causes the resource (e.g. a web server) to crash thereby denying authorized users the service<br />
offered by the resource. Another variation to a typical denial of service attack is known as a<br />
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack wherein the perpetrators are many and are<br />
geographically widespread.<br />
It is very difficult to control such attacks. The attack is initiated by sending excessive<br />
demands to the victim’s computer(s), exceeding the limit that the victim’s servers can support<br />
and making the servers crash. Denial-of-service attacks have had an impressive history having,<br />
in the past, brought down websites like Amazon, CNN, Yahoo and eBay.<br />
4.14 Virus / Worm attacks<br />
Viruses are programs that attach themselves to a computer or a file and then circulate<br />
themselves to other files and to other computers on a network. They usually affect the data on a<br />
computer, either by altering or deleting it.<br />
Worms, unlike viruses do not need the host to attach themselves to. They merely make<br />
functional copies of themselves and do this repeatedly till they eat up all the available space on a<br />
computer’s memory. The VBS_LOVELETTER virus (better known as the Love Bug or the<br />
ILOVEYOU virus) was reportedly written by a Filipino undergraduate. In May 2000, this deadly<br />
virus became the world’s most prevalent virus. It struck one in every five personal computers in<br />
the world. When the virus was brought under check the true magnitude of the losses was<br />
incomprehensible.<br />
4.15 Logic bombs<br />
Logic bombs are event dependent programs. This implies that these programs are created<br />
to do something only when a certain event (known as a trigger event) occurs. E.g. even some<br />
viruses may be termed logic bombs because they lie dormant all through the year and become<br />
active only on a particular date e.g. Chernobyl virus.<br />
4.16 Trojan attacks<br />
A Trojan is an unauthorized program which functions from inside what seems to be an<br />
authorized program, thereby concealing what it is actually doing. There are many simple ways of<br />
installing a Trojan in someone’s computer.<br />
4.17 Internet time theft<br />
This connotes the usage by an unauthorized person of the Internet hours paid <strong>for</strong> by<br />
another person. In May 2000, the economic offences wing, IPR section crime branch of Delhi<br />
police registered its first case involving theft of Internet hours. On detailed enquiry, the police<br />
arrested Krishan Kumar, son of an ex-army officer, working as senior executive in a corporate<br />
company who had stolen 107 of Internet time from other person’s account.<br />
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4.18 Web jacking<br />
Forceful taking of the control of a web site by cracking the password, is termed as ‘web<br />
jacking’. In this case, actual owner of the website does not have any more control over what<br />
appears on that website.<br />
4.19 Phishing<br />
Phishing is the act of sending an email to a user falsely claiming to be an established<br />
legitimate business in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private in<strong>for</strong>mation that will<br />
be used <strong>for</strong> identity theft. The email directs the user to visit a Web site where he or she is asked<br />
to update personal in<strong>for</strong>mation, such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank<br />
account numbers, that the legitimate organization already has issued. The Web site, however, is<br />
bogus and set up only to steal the user’s in<strong>for</strong>mation. Phishing combines the power of the<br />
internet with universal human nature to defraud millions of people out of billions of dollars<br />
across the globe. It is very important to note that nearly every internet user has received a<br />
phishing email by now.<br />
5. CYBER CRIMINALS<br />
Any person who commits an illegal act with a guilty intention or commits a crime is<br />
called an offender or a criminal. In this context, any person who commits a Cyber Crime is<br />
known as a Cyber Criminal. It seems really difficult to believe but true that most of the amateur<br />
hackers and cyber criminals are teenagers in the age group of 9 to 16. To them, who have just<br />
begun to understand what appears to be a lot about computers, it is a matter of pride to have<br />
hacked into a computer system or a website. These young rebels may also commit cyber crimes<br />
without really knowing that they are doing anything wrong.<br />
Persons who hack web sites with political motive are known as Hacktivists. The attacks<br />
on approximately 200 prominent Indian websites by a group of hackers known as Pakistani<br />
Cyber Warriors are a good example of political hacktivists at work. Hacking of web sites with<br />
religious and social motive is also increasing across the globe. Sometimes displeased employees<br />
of an organization can be turned as hacker. Earlier they had the option of going on strike against<br />
their bosses. Now, with the increase independence on computers and the automation of<br />
processes, it is easier <strong>for</strong> disgruntled employees to do more harm to their employers by<br />
committing computer related crimes, which can bring entire systems down and cause heavy<br />
monetary loss. It is a well known secret that extensive computerization has resulted in business<br />
organizations storing all their in<strong>for</strong>mation in electronic <strong>for</strong>m. So, rival organizations employ<br />
hackers to steal industrial secrets and other in<strong>for</strong>mation that could be beneficial to them. The<br />
temptation to use professional hackers <strong>for</strong> industrial espionage also stems from the fact that<br />
physical presence required to gain access to important documents is rendered needless if hacking<br />
can retrieve those.<br />
6. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ACT 2000<br />
Realising the importance of the enactment of suitable Act to combat cyber crimes,<br />
the Government of India after careful consideration passed the In<strong>for</strong>mation Technology Act<br />
2000. But, experts felt that the IT Act, 2000, is primarily meant to be a legislation to promote e-<br />
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commerce and it is not very effective in dealing with several emerging cyber crimes like cyber<br />
harassment, defamation, stalking and so on.<br />
7. CYBER CRIMES AND ITS RELEVANCE TO LIS PROFESSIONALS<br />
Most of the libraries in India, especially the academic libraries use of computers, Internet<br />
and network based services to extend effective and efficient library and in<strong>for</strong>mation services to<br />
the students, research scholars, faculty members and scientists who <strong>for</strong>m the membership base.<br />
They are widely using computers <strong>for</strong> various purposes viz. circulation, cataloguing, in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
services, collection development and serial control. Somebody either the library users or a<br />
mischievous staff may unknowingly or intentionally, conceal (hides or keeps secret), destroy<br />
(demolishes or reduces), alter (change in characteristics) or causes another to conceal, destroy,<br />
and alter any computer source code used <strong>for</strong> a computer, computer program, computer system or<br />
computer network in the Library. So, the LIS professionals should be very careful in this regard.<br />
Further, LIS professionals are handling huge bibliographical databases to cater to the<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation requirements of their user community. So, they should be aware of the data diddling<br />
where somebody may alter the raw data just be<strong>for</strong>e a computer processes it and then changing it<br />
back after the processing is completed. They should ensure enough safety and security to their<br />
databases.<br />
Most of the academic and special libraries have their own web site and they provide Web<br />
enabled Online Public Access Catalogue (Web OPAC) services to its members. Some<br />
universities and research institutes have already started their own Institutional Repositories (IR)<br />
and providing their own digital contents through Web. The number of digital libraries with web<br />
presence is increasing day by day. Considerable number of university libraries allows their users<br />
to access the library services over Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN) and<br />
World Wide Web (WWW). So, the LIS professionals should be very careful about unauthorized<br />
access to computer systems, networks and web sites which are known as hacking. It is important<br />
to note that the Pakistan Hackerz Club, an active hacker’s group based at Pakistan, had hacked<br />
the web sites of the Indian Parliament, Telephone Exchange of Ahmedabad, United Nations<br />
(India) and Engineering Export Council. So, we must be prepared to prevent such hacking by<br />
ensuring necessary safety and security measures.<br />
Forming of E-journal consortium among universities and institutes with similar interest is<br />
increasing while already the UGC has established UGC-Infonet consortium where access to<br />
journals is fully in electronic. This facility can be disturbed by cyber criminals through Denial of<br />
Service (DoS) attack i.e. flooding a computer resource with more requests than it can handle<br />
which causes the resource e.g. a web server, to crash thereby denying authorized users the<br />
service offered by the resource. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is another threat<br />
wherein the perpetrators are many and are geographically widespread. It is very difficult to<br />
control such attacks. The attack is initiated by sending excessive demands to the victim’s<br />
computer(s), exceeding the limit that the victim’s servers can support and making the servers<br />
crash. We should not <strong>for</strong>get the past incidences where websites like Amazon, CNN, Yahoo and<br />
eBay faced this kind of attacks.<br />
The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN) reported that 430 websites<br />
were attacked by cyber criminals during December 2006 alone.<br />
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Under the circumstances, the Library and In<strong>for</strong>mation professionals may face any kind of<br />
cyber crimes discussed in this article at any point of time. So, it is the need of the hour that the<br />
LIS professionals should be aware of the different types of cyber crimes.<br />
8. CYBER CRIME POLICE CELLS<br />
Since the number of cyber crimes increases in India, the Central Bureau of Investigations<br />
(CBI) has established a separate cell to look after the cyber crimes. Further, State Governments<br />
were also requested to establish separate cells to take care of cyber crimes and Karnataka was the<br />
first state to set up a Cyber Crime Police Station in 2001 to register and investigate cyber crimes<br />
under the jurisdiction of Karnataka state. Following Karnataka, few other states started<br />
establishing cyber crime cells and the details are furnished in Table-1.<br />
Sl.<br />
No.<br />
Table: 1: URL of Cyber Crime Police Cells in India<br />
City / State<br />
Uni<strong>for</strong>m Resource Locator<br />
1 Bangalore, Karnataka www.cyberpolicebangalore.nic.in<br />
2 Chennai, Tamilnadu www.chennaicitypolice.org/cyber.htm<br />
3 Cuttack, Orissa http://orissapolice.nic.in/news/cyber.htm<br />
4 Delhi, CBI Cyber Crime Cell http://cbi.nic.in<br />
5 Hyderabad, Andra Pradesh www.cidap.gov.in/cybercrimes.aspx<br />
6 Mumbai, Maharashtra http://www.cybercellmumbai.com/<br />
Now, Cyber Labs are also being established in India to help cyber crime police and the<br />
first Cyber lab in South India was established in Bangalore. Already such labs are functioning in<br />
Thane and Mumbai. The cyber lab will provide training to police officers, prosecutors, military<br />
police officers, bank officials, and others. It will train state police officers on cyber crime and<br />
related issues.<br />
9. PREVENTION OF CYBER CRIMES<br />
‘Prevention is better than cure’ is not only meant <strong>for</strong> human health but <strong>for</strong> computers as<br />
well. It is always better to take necessary steps to prevent cyber crimes. The following are some<br />
of the useful tips to prevent cyber crimes to some extent.<br />
DOs<br />
• Ensure using a security program that gives you control over cookies that send<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation back to Web sites.<br />
• If your Web site serves up dynamic content from a database, consider putting that<br />
database behind a second interface on your firewall, with tighter access rules than the<br />
interface to your server.<br />
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• Make sure web servers running your public site are physically separate and individually<br />
protected from your internal corporate network.<br />
• Put in a firewall and develop your content off line.<br />
• Send credit card in<strong>for</strong>mation only to secure web sites.<br />
• Thoroughly check out the site you are doing business regularly.<br />
• Use the latest anti-virus software, operating systems, Web browsers and email programs.<br />
DON’T<br />
• Allow your children to download files or software without your permission<br />
• Allow your children to have face-to-face meetings or send their photographs online<br />
• Arrange meetings with strangers<br />
• Believe everything you read or see online<br />
• Forget to check out the site you are doing business with thoroughly.<br />
• Forget to make sure web servers running your public site are physically separate and<br />
individually protected from your internal corporate network.<br />
• Forget to protect your databases.<br />
• Forget to put in a firewall and develop your content off line.<br />
• Forget to take back up your Web site after every update, so you can re-launch it<br />
immediately in case of a malicious defacement, if any.<br />
• Forget to watch traffic and put host-based intrusion detection devices on your servers, if<br />
you have a web site.<br />
• Give out any in<strong>for</strong>mation about yourself in a chat room<br />
• Let all cookies in without monitoring them<br />
• Post / host inappropriate content<br />
• Respond to inappropriate messages or emails<br />
• Respond to strangers who asks personal questions<br />
• Reveal personal in<strong>for</strong>mation which will help others to personally identify you e.g. real<br />
name, address, telephone number, etc.<br />
• Send credit card in<strong>for</strong>mation to unknown sites<br />
• Send your photos to people you don’t know very well<br />
• Share your password with other people<br />
• Tell others about personal or private in<strong>for</strong>mation about your friends or family members<br />
• Use adult / pornography sites<br />
• Use obsolete / pirated anti-virus software, operating systems, Web browsers and email<br />
programs.<br />
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10. CONCLUSION<br />
Cyber crimes in India are slowly evolving from a simple e-mail crime to more serious<br />
crimes like hacking and source code theft. It is a known fact that given the unrestricted number<br />
of free Web sites, the Internet is undeniably open to exploitation. Further, cases of spam,<br />
hacking, cyber stalking and email fraud are rampant and, although cyber crimes cells have been<br />
set up in major cities, the problem is that most cases remain unreported due to a lack of<br />
awareness.<br />
There<strong>for</strong>e, the LIS professionals should be aware of the variety of cyber crimes taking<br />
place across the globe and they should be prepared to combat such crimes in the library<br />
environment.<br />
REFERENCES<br />
1. Arellano, N. (<strong>2007</strong>). “Computer Crime: Top Threats in <strong>2007</strong>”. Available at http://www.crimeresearch.org/articles/Computer-crime-Top-threats-in-<strong>2007</strong>/2<br />
Accessed on 10.06.<strong>2007</strong>.<br />
2. Babu, M. and Parishat, M.G. (2004). “What is Cybercrime?” available at http://www.crimeresearch.org/analytics/702/<br />
(11.10.2004). Accessed on 16.06.<strong>2007</strong>.<br />
3. Chawki, M. (2006). “Phishing in Cyberspace: Issues and Solutions” available at<br />
http://wwww.crime-research.org Accessed on 12.06.<strong>2007</strong>.<br />
4. Cyber Crime Cell, Chennai City Police available at http://www.chennaicitypolice.org/cyber.htm<br />
Accessed on 12.06.<strong>2007</strong><br />
5. Jose, R. (<strong>2007</strong>). Beware! Cyber Crime Net is Expanding. Financial Express 28.05.<strong>2007</strong>.<br />
Available at www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=165434 Accessed on<br />
15.06.<strong>2007</strong>.<br />
6. Joshi, M.S. “Full Guide on Cyber Crimes in India” available at<br />
http://www.india<strong>for</strong>ensic.com/compcrime.htm Accessed on 10-06-<strong>2007</strong><br />
7. Lovet, G. (<strong>2007</strong>). “How Cyber Crime operations work and why they make money” available at<br />
http://www.crime-research.org/analytics/2524/ (22.02.<strong>2007</strong>) Accessed on 10.06.<strong>2007</strong>.<br />
8. Mohana Sundari, T. and Rathinasabapathy, G. (2005). “Emerging Challenges in using<br />
Pharmacological Resources from the Internet”. Proceedings of the National Seminar on<br />
Veterinary Pharmacology in Post WTO Era and 5 th Annual Conference of the Indian Society <strong>for</strong><br />
Veterinary Pharmacology and Toxicology, 24 –26, November 2005, Madras Veterinary College,<br />
Chennai-7 pp.89.<br />
9. Rathinasabapathy, G. (2005). “Cybermedicine: A Study on the Problems with Online Healthcare<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation Resources”. In: Proceedings of the Annual Conference of Medical Library<br />
Association of India, NIMHANs, Bangalore.<br />
10. Vijayashankar, N. (2005). “Understanding Cyber Crimes in India” available at<br />
http://sify.com/news/internet/fullstory.php?id=13924964&page=2 Accessed on 15.06.<strong>2007</strong><br />
142
Digital Infrastructure and Technology Integration in<br />
State Agricultural University Libraries in South<br />
India: A Study<br />
G. Rathinasabapathy * and A. Amudhavalli **<br />
Abstract<br />
The State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) are playing a pivotal role in education, research<br />
and extension activities in the fields of agricultural sciences in India. The core activities of SAUs are<br />
mainly depending on its library and in<strong>for</strong>mation centres as in<strong>for</strong>mation is an essential input <strong>for</strong><br />
education, research and extension. Since the prosperity of the country and the welfare of the vast<br />
majority of the population are interconnected with the efficient harnessing of agriculture, further<br />
strengthening of the library and in<strong>for</strong>mation centres of SAUs is absolutely necessary. In this context,<br />
this paper attempts to present the digital infrastructure available and the technology integration<br />
activities of eight State Agricultural University (SAU) libraries in South India viz., Andra Pradesh<br />
N.G.Ranga Agriculture University, Hyderabad; Sri Venkateswara Veterinary University, Tirupathi;<br />
University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore; University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharward;<br />
Karnataka Animal, Veterinary and Fishery Sciences University, Bidar; Tamilnadu Agricultural<br />
University, Coimbatore; Tamilnadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Chennai and Kerala<br />
Agricultural University, Mannuthy.<br />
Key words: Digital Infrastructure, Technology Integration, State Agricultural University<br />
Libraries, South India,<br />
1. INTRODUCTION<br />
India is an agricultural country and the share of agriculture including the allied<br />
sectors in GDP is 18.6% in 2005. Agriculture accounts <strong>for</strong> 8.56% of India’s exports<br />
and around 60% of the country’s population is employed in these sectors. Despite a<br />
steady decline of its share in the GDP, agriculture is still the largest economic sector<br />
and plays a significant role in the overall socio-economic development of India. The<br />
achievements of Indian agriculture are possible due to the industrious ef<strong>for</strong>ts taken by<br />
the educators, researchers and extension professionals in the field of agricultural<br />
sciences. The State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) are playing a pivotal role in<br />
education, research and extension activities in the fields of agricultural sciences in<br />
India.<br />
The core activities of SAUs are mainly depending on its library and<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation centres as in<strong>for</strong>mation is an essential input <strong>for</strong> education, research and<br />
extension. Since the prosperity of the country and the welfare of the vast majority of<br />
the population are interconnected with the efficient harnessing of agriculture, further<br />
strengthening of the library and in<strong>for</strong>mation centres of SAUs is absolutely necessary.<br />
In this context, this paper attempts to present the digital infrastructure<br />
available and the technology integration activities of eight State Agricultural<br />
University (SAU) libraries in South India.<br />
* Tamilnadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Chennai -600 007<br />
** Professor and Head, Department of In<strong>for</strong>mation Science, University of Madras, Chennai – 600 005<br />
143
2. STATE AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITIES IN SOUTH INDIA<br />
India has built in a strong base of agricultural education. Organized instruction<br />
in agriculture at university level was introduced in the beginning of 20 th century when<br />
five agricultural colleges were established in 1907. At the time of Independence, India<br />
had only 17 Agricultural colleges, 3 Veterinary colleges and one Agricultural<br />
Engineering College.<br />
In 1964, the Kothari Commission headed by Dr. D.S.Kothari specifically<br />
recommended the establishment of at least one Agricultural University in each state.<br />
At present, there are 40 State Agricultural Universities in India which are governed by<br />
the Indian Council of Agricultural <strong>Research</strong> (ICAR), an apex body of the Government<br />
of India. In South India which is comprising of Andra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and<br />
Tamilnadu states and Puducherry Union Territory, eight State Agricultural<br />
Universities are functioning are listed below with the year of establishment of each<br />
university.<br />
I. Andra Pradesh<br />
(1) Andra Pradesh N.G.Ranga Agriculture University (ANGRAU),<br />
Hyderabad (1964)<br />
(2) Sri Venkateswara Veterinary University (SVVU), Tirupathi (2005)<br />
II. Karnataka<br />
(3) University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Bangalore (1964)<br />
(4) University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Dharward (1986)<br />
(5) Karnataka Animal, Veterinary and Fishery Sciences University,<br />
(KAVFSU),Bidar (2005)<br />
III. Kerala<br />
(6) Kerala Agricultural University (KAU), Mannuthy (1971)<br />
IV. Tamilnadu<br />
(7) Tamilnadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore (1976)<br />
(8) Tamilnadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (TANUVAS),<br />
Chennai (1989)<br />
The Puducherry Union Territory which <strong>for</strong>ms part of South India does not<br />
have State Agricultural University.<br />
3. AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES<br />
The Indo-American Agricultural Survey and Study Team in its final report on<br />
ICAR Institutes and Agricultural University Libraries, recommended that every<br />
agricultural university library is a special library which must be oriented to the service<br />
of agriculture. Its collection and the clientele are both discreet. The agricultural<br />
universities have recognized the need <strong>for</strong> proper library and in<strong>for</strong>mation services and<br />
established libraries with a planned collection of books, periodicals, reports and other<br />
documents to meet the study and research needs of the specific clientele.<br />
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4. DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE<br />
A ‘Digital Infrastructure’ consists of computers, storage devices, network<br />
cabling, switches and operating systems that support an organization's digital<br />
operations. A survey had been conducted among the eight SAU libraries to know the<br />
digital infrastructure available in the libraries.<br />
4.1 Computers, Printers, Scanners<br />
The survey conducted at the select eight SAU libraries revealed that all the<br />
libraries are provided with computer systems and other digital infrastructure and the<br />
details are furnished in Table-1.<br />
Table-1: Digital Infrastructure available in SAU Libraries of South India<br />
S.No. SAU Computer Printer Scanner<br />
1 ANGRAU 20 3 2<br />
2 KAU 25 4 1<br />
3 KVAFSU 2 1 1<br />
4 SVVU 2 1 1<br />
5 TANUVAS 20 5 1<br />
6 TNAU 15 2 1<br />
7 UAS-B 15 2 1<br />
8 UAS-D 14 1 1<br />
4.2 Storage Devices<br />
Another important component of digital infrastructure is storage device.<br />
Earlier only magnetic tapes were used as storage devices. The advent of latest<br />
techniques brought a variety of storage devices which include floppy disks, CD-ROM<br />
disks, DVD, Optical disks and pen / flash disks where we can store gigabytes of<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation. The study revealed that all the eight SAU libraries are having required<br />
storage devices.<br />
4.3 Network<br />
The technology to connect or 'network' all these computers is another<br />
component of Digital Infrastructure. The widely accepted standard that we all use<br />
Ethernet, is faster and more af<strong>for</strong>dable than ever be<strong>for</strong>e, and is the common carrier of<br />
digital data in today' business world. Networking used to mean carrying a magnetic or<br />
optical disk from one computer to another. Nowadays, Gigabit Ethernet is the<br />
standard data highway <strong>for</strong> moving large files. It should already be the backbone of our<br />
Digital Infrastructure, connecting our file server to our LAN switch to provide the<br />
fastest access to files <strong>for</strong> users. The study revealed that out of eight SAU libraries, six<br />
libraries have library network and connectivity to its LAN whereas only three libraries<br />
are accessible over the Intranet of the university which connects its campuses. The<br />
particulars in respect of library network facilities are furnished in Table-2.<br />
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Table- 2: Library Network facilities in SAU Libraries<br />
S.No. SAU Within the Library LAN Intranet<br />
1 ANGRAU Y Y Y<br />
2 KAU Y Y N<br />
3 KVAFSU N N N<br />
4 SVVU N N N<br />
5 TANUVAS Y Y Y<br />
6 TNAU Y Y N<br />
7 UAS-B Y Y Y<br />
8 UAS-D Y N N<br />
Y = Yes. N = No<br />
5. TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION<br />
Technology Integration is a term used by educators to describe effective uses<br />
of technology by teachers and students in education and research. Teachers use<br />
technology to support instruction. When teachers integrate technology into their<br />
classroom practice, learners are empowered to be actively engaged in learning.<br />
6. TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION IN LIBRARIES<br />
Technology integration is not only done by teachers but LIS professionals as<br />
well. Earlier, librarians were putting people together with the books, journals,<br />
magazines and in<strong>for</strong>mation they need. But, today librarians are expected to be expert<br />
at troubleshooting their computers, creating web pages and to do virtual reference<br />
services.<br />
There<strong>for</strong>e, librarians are using all available technologies in library and<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation centre management to extend effective and efficient LIS services to the<br />
user community and try their level best to cater to the ever increasing in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
requirements of their clients. Integration of technologies in library and in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
centres empowers their user community to be actively engaged in learning, teaching<br />
and research.<br />
Most of the Librarians are integrating technologies to achieve the following<br />
which will ensure optimum utilization of the valuable library resources by the user<br />
community.<br />
1) Automation<br />
2) Networking<br />
3) Digitization<br />
4) Electronic surveillance<br />
5) Electronic Library<br />
6.1 Automation<br />
In libraries, automation refers to the process of automating functions such as<br />
acquisition, circulation, cataloging and serial control. Library automation ensures<br />
effective and efficient services to the user community. Nowadays, most of the<br />
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libraries, especially academic libraries have automated their services. In some<br />
libraries, at least the circulation functions are automated so that the charging,<br />
discharging and reservation of documents can be done effectively.<br />
As far as the automation of SAU libraries are concerned, the ICAR has<br />
liberally funded the libraries to procure SOUL (Software <strong>for</strong> University Library),<br />
developed by INFLIBNET, an Inter-University <strong>Centre</strong> of the University Grants<br />
Commission. The SAUs were also supported by ICAR under NATP <strong>for</strong><br />
retroconversion of bibliographical records, procurement of hardware and other<br />
components required <strong>for</strong> automation.<br />
As far as the select eight SAU libraries in this study are concerned, all the<br />
libraries had automated their libraries except Sri Venkateswara Veterinary University,<br />
Tirupathi. The details to what extent they automated their library functions are<br />
furnished below in Table-3.<br />
Table-3: Library Automation in SAU Libraries<br />
S. No. SAU<br />
Automation<br />
Acquisition Circulation Technical<br />
Processing<br />
Serial<br />
Control<br />
1 ANGRAU N Y Y Y<br />
2 KAU Y Y Y Y<br />
3 KVAFSU N Y N N<br />
4 SVVU N N N N<br />
5 TANUVAS Y Y Y Y<br />
6 TNAU N Y N N<br />
7 UAS-B Y Y Y Y<br />
8 UAS-D N Y N N<br />
Y = Yes.<br />
N = No<br />
6.2 Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC)<br />
Most of the automated libraries are providing Online Public Access Catalog<br />
(OPAC) which provides access to the library's holdings via a computer monitor,<br />
replacing the traditional card catalog. Nowadays, libraries started providing OPAC<br />
services over the Intranet / Web which is known as Web OPAC. The Web OPAC<br />
services offered by the SAUs are accessible over the LAN/Intranet of the university<br />
but not made available on public domain through World Wide Web. Details of OPAC<br />
facility offered by SAU libraries are furnished in Table-4.<br />
6.3 Library Networking<br />
Networking is nothing but connecting two or a group of computers including<br />
the hardware, software using cables or other suitable tools and techniques to share the<br />
resources. Library networking refers to the networking of the computers available<br />
within the library and Local Area Network / Intranet of the University. Library<br />
networking within the library connects only the computers available in the library<br />
alone whereas the LAN connectivity, which usually connects all the departments of a<br />
campus, enables the users to access the library services over the LAN. The Intranet<br />
connects all the campuses of a university so that the library services can be utilized by<br />
all the campuses of the university. The particulars in respect of library networking are<br />
furnished in Table-2.<br />
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Table- 4: OPAC / Web OPAC Facilities in SAU Libraries<br />
S.No. SAU OPAC WEB OPAC<br />
1 ANGRAU Y Y<br />
2 KAU Y Y<br />
3 KVAFSU Y N<br />
4 SVVU N N<br />
5 TANUVAS Y Y<br />
6 TNAU Y Y<br />
7 UAS-B Y Y<br />
8 UAS-D Y N<br />
Y = Yes. N = No<br />
6.4 Digitization<br />
Digitization means acquiring, converting, storing and providing in<strong>for</strong>mation in<br />
a computer <strong>for</strong>mat that is standardized, organized and available on demand from<br />
common system. Digitization enables us to convert the manuscripts into compressed<br />
digital signals with specialized scanners and stored systematically <strong>for</strong> future<br />
reference. SAU Libraries started digitizing the Theses / Dissertations submitted by<br />
their research scholars as part of their master’s and doctoral programmes since these<br />
are valuable documents come under primary source of in<strong>for</strong>mation and contain<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation with research value. The Indian Council of Agricultural <strong>Research</strong> (ICAR)<br />
started funding the SAU libraries <strong>for</strong> digitizing the abstracts of the theses /<br />
dissertations and the full-text of award won theses through a World Bank funded<br />
project ‘National Agricultural Technology Project’. Under this project, the SAUs<br />
under study received grants exclusively <strong>for</strong> digitization. The details of digitization<br />
facility available at these universities are furnished in Table-5.<br />
Table-5: Digitization Facilities available in SAU Libraries<br />
S.No. SAU Is there a<br />
Digitization<br />
Unit?<br />
148<br />
No. of<br />
computers<br />
available in<br />
the DU<br />
Software used <strong>for</strong><br />
Digitization<br />
1 ANGRAU Y 2 Vicidocs<br />
2 KAU Y 2 Aligator Retriever<br />
3 KVAFSU N N N<br />
4 SVVU N N<br />
5 TANUVAS Y 1 Digit<br />
6 TNAU Y 2 NA<br />
7 UAS-B Y 5 NA<br />
8 UAS-D Y 4 Docushare<br />
6.5 Electronic Library<br />
Electronic Library is another example <strong>for</strong> technology integration in Libraries.<br />
Electronic library is nothing but the Library's collection of electronic resources which<br />
includes full text journals, books, theses, newspapers and other documents that the<br />
Library has electronic access to as well as references to thousands of journal articles<br />
and links to useful web sites. Electronic libraries are becoming very popular among
students, research scholars, faculty members and scientists as they facilitate them to<br />
(i) search <strong>for</strong> a particular journal or newspaper article; (ii) full text book titles; (iii)<br />
browse electronic resources by subject; (iv) access many full text journal and<br />
newspaper articles both on and off-campus; (v) find good websites relevant to a<br />
particular subject area, discipline, topic, etc.<br />
Establishing an electronic library in the library is become possible only by<br />
technology integration and Librarians are playing a pivotal role in design and<br />
development of electronic libraries.<br />
As far as the SAU libraries under this study are concerned, the TANUVAS,<br />
ANGRAU and TNAU are subscribing electronic journals at present and the other five<br />
libraries are yet to start subscribing e-journals. It is very important to note that the<br />
TANUVAS ranks first in e-journal subscription with 81 titles. As far as the CD-ROM<br />
databases and other CD-ROM products are concerned, all these libraries had<br />
established a good collection and the details are furnished in Table – 6.<br />
Table -6: CD-ROM databases/Products available in SAU Libraries<br />
S.No. SAU CD-ROM databases CD-ROM Products<br />
1 ANGRAU 5 -<br />
2 KAU 16 203<br />
3 KVAFSU 1 NA<br />
4 SVVU 2 NA<br />
5 TANUVAS 5 35<br />
6 TNAU 2 -<br />
7 UAS-B 4 NA<br />
8 UAS-D 14 NA<br />
NA = Not available<br />
It has been observed that none of the above SAU library has acquired<br />
electronic books under collection development. Though there are 40 SAUs in India<br />
and 8 in South India, none of them put their OPAC in public domain which can<br />
facilitate access through World Wide Web.<br />
Though the subscription cost of print and e-journals are sky rocketing, there<br />
are hundreds of open source full-text journals available on the Internet where a good<br />
number of journals are of scholarly in content and peer reviewed. So, even there is no<br />
sufficient financial support from the universities <strong>for</strong> e-journal subscription, the<br />
librarians can compile the URLs of all open source e-journals and put it on the<br />
library’s web site / OPAC to ensure optimum utilization of these valuable resources<br />
by their clients.<br />
The Indian Council of Agricultural <strong>Research</strong> (ICAR) has taken a major<br />
initiative in this regard through a World Bank funded project ‘National Agricultural<br />
Innovation Project’ (NAIP) to <strong>for</strong>m an e-journal consortia which is named as ‘CeRA<br />
(Consortium <strong>for</strong> e-Resources <strong>for</strong> Agriculture). Under the consortia all the 40 State<br />
Agricultural Universities, Central Agricultural University and major ICAR Institutes<br />
functioning in India will be provided with access to e-journals and other scholar e-<br />
contents.<br />
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6.6 Electronic surveillance<br />
Libraries are not always safe and secure places and they are facing a wide<br />
variety of security concerns which includes the theft and mutilation of library<br />
materials. There<strong>for</strong>e, the mission of a library includes library security which aims to<br />
protect the library resources by creating a secure and peaceful environment to enhance<br />
educational and professional pursuits of all those concerned with the library.<br />
Technology integration plays a vital role in this context and the librarians are<br />
making use of the technological advancements in this area. They are installing<br />
electronic security systems to overcome the security threats to a greater extent. These<br />
electronic security systems which typically provide burglar protection, collection<br />
security, access control and video surveillance are good examples <strong>for</strong> technology<br />
integration in libraries.<br />
The present survey revealed that out of eight SAU libraries, only the<br />
TANUVAS has established Electronic Video Surveillance facility in its central<br />
library. The other libraries are yet to establish such facilities.<br />
It is also observed that none of the SAU libraries covered by this study has<br />
established Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) system in the library which is<br />
highly essential in these days to prevent unethical losses suffered by the libraries.<br />
7. CONCLUSION<br />
Establishing required digital infrastructure in libraries especially<br />
academic libraries is absolutely necessary and need of the hour to ensure optimum<br />
utilization of in<strong>for</strong>mation resources available in the library. Keeping this in view, the<br />
study had been undertaken among the eight State Agricultural University Libraries in<br />
South India. The study revealed that almost all the eight libraries are equipped with<br />
required digital infrastructure except the two newly established viz., Sri Venkateswara<br />
Veterinary University, Tirupathi and Karnataka Veterinary, Animal and Fishery<br />
Sciences University, Bidar.<br />
Further, the study revealed that most of the digital infrastructure available in<br />
the libraries were procured under NATP, a World Bank funded project of the Indian<br />
Council of Agricultural <strong>Research</strong>. Thus, the role played by the ICAR in modernising<br />
the libraries of SAU libraries is really laudable. It is also suggested that the ICAR<br />
shall give priority <strong>for</strong> modernisation of the SAU and ICAR institute libraries under<br />
National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP), which is funded by the World Bank.<br />
150
REFERENCES<br />
1. Bhatia, J.S. (2001). “Agricultural Education: A Career Guide”. Indian Council of<br />
Agricultural <strong>Research</strong>, New Delhi – 110 002, pp. 1-10.<br />
2. Breeding, M. (2000). “Technologies <strong>for</strong> sharing library resources”. In<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
Today & Tomorrow 17.9: pp.60-62.<br />
3. Kalam, A.P.J.A. (2004). “The Second Green Revolution and beyond”. University<br />
News 42.5: pp.16-19.<br />
4. Library Automation / Technology Glossary available at http://www.libraryhq.<br />
com/glossary.html Accessed on 10-06-<strong>2007</strong><br />
5. Mahadevappa, M. (2001). “Addressing Financial Constrains of State Agricultural<br />
Universities”. University News, 39.43: 3-6.<br />
6. Perumalsamy, K. (2000). “Role of Library in Agricultural In<strong>for</strong>mation System”.<br />
University News, 38.2: pp. 6-9.<br />
7. Rathinasabapathy, G. and Amudhavalli, A. (2005). Resource Sharing among State<br />
Agricultural University and ICAR Institute Libraries in India through Web Portal. In:<br />
Proceedings of Delivery of In<strong>for</strong>mation Services through Distributed Digital<br />
Environment. 23 rd Annual Convention and Conference of SIS. Andhra University:<br />
268-277. Visakapatnam: SIS.<br />
8. Rathinasabapathy, G. and A. Amudhavalli (2006). AGRILIBNET: (Agricultural<br />
Libraries Network): A Web Portal <strong>for</strong> In<strong>for</strong>mation Sharing. International Conference<br />
on Digital Libraries 2006 Conference Papers Vol. I. pp. 188-199<br />
9. Rathinasabapathy, G. and A. Amudhavalli (2006). ICT Implementation in State<br />
Agricultural University Libraries in South India: A Study. NACLIN 2006 Seminar<br />
Volume. pp. 182<br />
10. Vibhuti, N.B. (2003). “Need <strong>for</strong> Networking in Agriculture Libraries and In<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
<strong>Centre</strong>s”. ILA Bulletin, 39.3: pp. 33-36.<br />
151
Knowledge Management in Academic Institute and<br />
Role of Knowledge Managers<br />
Sanjay Gupta * , Vasundhra Kumari ** and Anukampa Negi ***<br />
Abstract<br />
The rapid advancement in the means of communication has changed the way of handling,<br />
storing and disseminating the in<strong>for</strong>mation. The digital revolution has altered the intellectual functions<br />
of libraries and in<strong>for</strong>mation managers. The huge data, which is being created in the database systems,<br />
is of no use if not being handled and stored properly. The in<strong>for</strong>mation managers have to play a<br />
significant role in managing internal as well as external resources so that the scholars, researchers<br />
and faculty of an academic institute/university can make optimum use of the available data resources<br />
to carry out their research work. The importance of managing the knowledge has been recognized from<br />
the day of evolution of mankind. However the systematic study of knowledge management as an area of<br />
study came into existence in the 90’s. The present paper describes the evolution of knowledge<br />
management; the important issues of knowledge management related to academic libraries and the<br />
role of knowledge managers in disseminating the right in<strong>for</strong>mation to right reader in right way at right<br />
time effectively and efficiently.<br />
INTRODUCTION<br />
The term knowledge is the fact or condition of knowing something with<br />
familiarity gained through experiences or associations. The most commonly used<br />
definition of knowledge is “the ideas or understandings which an entity possesses that<br />
are used to take effective action to achieve the entity’s goal.” Knowledge is the full<br />
utilization of data and in<strong>for</strong>mation, coupled with the potential of people’s skill,<br />
competencies, ideas, intuitions, commitments and motivations. Knowledge<br />
Management is a new discipline in the library and in<strong>for</strong>mation environment. The<br />
technological revolution i.e. the growth of global networks has accelerated the use of<br />
knowledge management in many organizations including those in the library and<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation environment.<br />
There is no universal definition of Knowledge Management. Knowledge<br />
management is the explicit and systematic management of vital knowledge and its<br />
associated processes of creation, organization, diffusion, use and exploitation. It is a<br />
framework within which the organization views all its processes as knowledge<br />
processes. It focuses on ‘Doing the Right Thing’ instead of ‘Doing Things Right’<br />
based on the common saying ‘Prevention is better than cure’<br />
The term is used loosely to refer to a broad collection of organizational<br />
practices and approaches related to generating, capturing, disseminating know how<br />
and other content relevant to the organizational business. In a broader sense<br />
Knowledge management can be defined as an organization or community’s planned<br />
approach to collecting, evaluating, cataloging, integrating, sharing, improving and<br />
generating value from its intellectual and in<strong>for</strong>mation based assets.<br />
* Librarian, Sant Longowal Institute of Engg. & Tech., Longowal 148 106<br />
** Librarian, KV No.1, Patiala Cantt. Patiala 147 001<br />
*** M.Lib.I.Sc. Student<br />
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Knowledge Management may be defined as a process of creating, storing,<br />
sharing and re-using organizational knowledge (Know – How) to enable an<br />
organization to achieve its goal and objectives.<br />
Organizations actually go about acquiring, sharing and creating new<br />
knowledge. The various interpretations of KM are given below to have a better<br />
understanding of its organizational impact:<br />
• It is the process of collecting, organizing, classifying and disseminating in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
throughout an organization, so as to make it purposeful to those who need it.<br />
• It refers to policies, procedures and technologies employed <strong>for</strong> operating a<br />
continuously updated linked pair of networked databases.<br />
• It aims to capture the knowledge that employees really need in a Central repository<br />
and filter out the surplus.<br />
• It is a means of ensuring a complete development and implementation environment<br />
designed <strong>for</strong> use in specific function requiring expert system support.<br />
• It concerns organizing and analyzing in<strong>for</strong>mation in a computer databases. This<br />
knowledge can be readily shared throughout the organization.<br />
• It involves identification of categories of knowledge needed to support the overall<br />
library activities.<br />
• It combines indexing, searching and push technology to help libraries in organizing<br />
data stored in multiple sources and deliver only relevant in<strong>for</strong>mation to users.<br />
• It, in general, tries to organize and make available important know how wherever and<br />
whenever it’s needed.<br />
• It involves mapping knowledge and in<strong>for</strong>mation resources both online and off line;<br />
training; guiding and equipping users with knowledge access tools and monitoring<br />
outside news and in<strong>for</strong>mation.<br />
• It incorporates intelligent searching, categorization and accessing of data from<br />
disparate databases, e-mail and files.<br />
• It involves understanding the relationships of data; identifying and documenting rules<br />
<strong>for</strong> mapping data; and assuring that data are accurate and maintain integrity.<br />
• It helps in facilitation of autonomous coordination of decentralized subsystems that<br />
can state and adapt their own objectives.<br />
EVOLUTION OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT (KM)<br />
Dr. Ranganathan was the first person who abruptly marked that Universe of<br />
subjects is synonymous to Universe of Knowledge and he had proposed the concept<br />
of knowledge management explicitly. Knowledge Management is an approach <strong>for</strong><br />
addressing the in<strong>for</strong>mation overload that has evolved over the last few years. The<br />
importance of knowledge has been recognized from the very first day of mankind<br />
evolution; however the systematic study of knowledge as a management and scientific<br />
discipline began during 1990s. A holistic view considers knowledge to be present in<br />
ideas, judgments, talents, root causes, relationships, perspectives and concepts.<br />
Knowledge is stored in the individual brain or encoded in organizational processes,<br />
documents, products, services, facilities and systems. The table given below<br />
153
summarizes evolution of Knowledge Management during last five decades:<br />
2000-<br />
Knowledge Management<br />
Knowledge Sharing Culture<br />
Enterprise Integration<br />
Intellectual Capital Harnessing<br />
The 90s<br />
Learning Organization<br />
Market Valuation<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation Systems<br />
Intranets/Extranets<br />
Re-engineering<br />
The 80s<br />
TQM<br />
Downsizing<br />
The 70s<br />
Strategic Planning<br />
Portfolio Management<br />
Automation<br />
The 60s<br />
Centralization and Decentralization<br />
Conglomeration<br />
The 50s<br />
Diversification<br />
EDP<br />
Quantitative Management<br />
Management by Objectives (MBO)<br />
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT PROCESS<br />
Davenport explains that Knowledge Management (KM) is viewed as a<br />
‘process is about acquisition, creation, packaging and application of reuse of<br />
knowledge’. It includes all the terms and technologies described below:<br />
1. Tacit Knowledge: individual’s expertise, memories, values and beliefs,<br />
viewpoint and values.<br />
2. Explicit Knowledge: process of communication from one place to another in a<br />
systematic way and is more <strong>for</strong>mal and codified.<br />
3. Corporate Memory: Know-How of an organization. It relates to problem –<br />
solving, project experiences, and human resource management.<br />
154
4. Intellectual assets/Knowledge assets: similar terms which comprises<br />
knowledge assets regarding products, technologies and market that a business<br />
own.<br />
5. In<strong>for</strong>mation Economics: study of the clear value of in<strong>for</strong>mation to an<br />
organization.<br />
6. Data Mining: the exploration and analysis of automatic and semiautomatic<br />
means of large quantities of data in order to discover meaningful patterns and<br />
rules.<br />
7. Knowledge Representation: the process of describing and presenting usable<br />
way of knowledge known by a person.<br />
8. Knowledge Mapping: finding existing knowledge in an organization and<br />
creating a detailed picture of skills.<br />
9. Concept Mapping: the visual summary of ideas or topics is related to each<br />
other.<br />
10. Knowledge Engineer: a person responsible of acquiring knowledge and<br />
developing data and rules <strong>for</strong> expert systems.<br />
STEPS IN KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT<br />
1. Knowledge Capture: a systematic procedure <strong>for</strong> organizing, structuring<br />
knowledge to make it accessible and usable to users.<br />
2. Knowledge Organization: an organization that values and uses its own<br />
knowledge in reflective ways that lead to profound shifts in directions, values,<br />
beliefs and operating assumptions.<br />
3. Knowledge Preservation: after collecting and codifying the knowledge, it must<br />
be stored in suitable <strong>for</strong>m in the organization’s knowledge base.<br />
MODULES OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT<br />
The KM system is primarily based on eight vital modules. These modules are<br />
(i) In<strong>for</strong>mation (ii) Expertise (iii) Collaboration (iv) Team (v) Learning (vi)<br />
Intelligence (vii) Knowledge Transfer and (viii) Knowledge Mapping<br />
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN ACADEMIC LIBRARIES<br />
The main functions of an academic institute are education and research. To<br />
achieve these functions there is a need to use the whole knowledge and in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
accurately, precisely and systematically. Academic libraries, now a days known as<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation centers, are established in support of the mission of their parent<br />
institutions to generate knowledge, and people equipped with knowledge in order to<br />
serve the society and advance the well-being of mankind. In the digital age, academic<br />
libraries face challenges from both within (academia) and without (the business<br />
sector).<br />
155
To prove their relevance and value, academic libraries must strive to provide<br />
the right amount of in<strong>for</strong>mation to the right clientele properly with appropriate<br />
financial and human resources to improve organizational per<strong>for</strong>mance. The role of<br />
knowledge management in libraries today has become more vital along-with the<br />
development of knowledge economy. The major components of knowledge<br />
management in libraries are:<br />
1. Human Resource Management<br />
2. Knowledge innovation<br />
3. In<strong>for</strong>mation Technology<br />
4. Knowledge Dissemination<br />
The academic libraries should adopt new policies, strategies and<br />
implementation of knowledge management <strong>for</strong> rendering qualitative services to its<br />
users so as to increase faith in the organization. The main objective of an academic<br />
library is to serve as an institution to nurture a reading society and to provide the<br />
required in<strong>for</strong>mation to promote reading and knowledge. Successful knowledge<br />
system involves “package knowledge” in the process of doing real work.<br />
OBJECTIVES OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN LIBRARIES<br />
In the knowledge economy era, the libraries will attach importance to<br />
vocational training and lifelong education of library staff to raise their knowledge<br />
level and ability of acquiring and innovating knowledge. The main objectives of<br />
implementing knowledge management in an academic library are:<br />
• An all-round improvement of library staff’s<br />
• To promote relationships in and between libraries and library users.<br />
• To promote knowledge innovation.<br />
• To strengthen knowledge internetworking and to quicken knowledge flow.<br />
• To carry out searches on development and application of in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
resources.<br />
TECHNIQUES AND TOOLS OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT<br />
1. Financial Management: In<strong>for</strong>mation resources are the basic components of<br />
academic library. Without finance in<strong>for</strong>mation resources can not be acquired<br />
and accessed.<br />
2. Cost Analysis: For efficient and effective knowledge management cost<br />
analysis is the need of the hour.<br />
3. Application of IT: Knowledge is the application of IT in an in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
handling activities. The induction of IT in libraries has to be addressed more<br />
as a major change in management exercise than providing technological<br />
solutions to the existing problems.<br />
4. Standards: Standards are important <strong>for</strong> knowledge management,<br />
standardization in materials techniques and pattern of service<br />
156
is quite important. The exchange of in<strong>for</strong>mation is possible only if compatible<br />
standards and techniques <strong>for</strong> in<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge transfers are<br />
followed.<br />
5. In<strong>for</strong>mation Retrieval Tools: It does not matter how much in<strong>for</strong>mation is<br />
available in the databases unless and until it is being retrieved <strong>for</strong> use.<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation retrieval offers the required knowledge through free text search<br />
and search with advanced algorithms so that all the relevant knowledge can be<br />
retrieved.<br />
6. Meta Data: Metadata is simply data about data which helps the users to<br />
retrieve the required in<strong>for</strong>mation easily.<br />
BARRIERS TO IMPLEMENT PROPER KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT<br />
SYSTEM<br />
To keep pace with the challenges the academic librarians have to increase their<br />
operational efficiency within the limited budgets allocated. The most effective tool<br />
that can help in this reference is Knowledge Management. O’Dell and Grayson have<br />
listed the following barriers in the proper implementation of knowledge management:<br />
• Ignorance-not knowing who has the right in<strong>for</strong>mation required <strong>for</strong> the job.<br />
• Lack of time to find out and absorb the best practices recommended<br />
• Lack of a relationship between the source and recipient of knowledge<br />
• Time lag taken to implement best practices recommended across departments.<br />
BENEFITS OF IMPLEMENTING KM<br />
The benefit of implementing KM in academic library are:<br />
Benefits:<br />
• Better ROI (Return on Investment)<br />
• Improved measures of per<strong>for</strong>mance<br />
• A greater understanding of organizational goals<br />
• Lesson learned on organizational change<br />
• Understanding user’s requirement through constant evaluation of the services<br />
and its improvement<br />
• An opportunity to see oneself not just service oriented, but mostly value<br />
oriented<br />
THE ROLES OF KNOWLEDGE PROFESSIONALS FOR KNOWLEDGE<br />
MANAGEMENT<br />
Knowledge Management has emerged as a key concern of organizations. Earlier<br />
librarians have been regarded as part of the supportive staff of the organization,<br />
working quietly in the background, often uninvolved in any of the critical<br />
157
functions of the organization. Patricia Battin and Brian Hawkins made the following<br />
observation:<br />
“Librarians can no longer meet the in<strong>for</strong>mation needs of faculty and students through<br />
the traditional avenue of simply adding to their collections.” As librarian one must<br />
extend their expertise beyond collection management to knowledge management. The<br />
librarians have to extend their expertise in selecting, organizing, and preserving<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation to new <strong>for</strong>ms of less <strong>for</strong>mal, unpublished material, we must be willing to<br />
get outside the routines and the walls of the traditional library and work more directly<br />
with technologists, faculty, and students. It means librarians will not be merely the<br />
custodians of in<strong>for</strong>mation but they will act as knowledge managers who will work<br />
with users in collecting and analyzing strategic intelligence and to act as trainers and<br />
consultants to transfer knowledge throughout the organization. In this new role the<br />
knowledge managers will be:<br />
• Knowledge management developers, working more closely with faculty and<br />
students to design, organize, and maintain a broader range of digital assets;<br />
• Knowledge management integrators, having a more active role in the<br />
educational and research mission of university, integrating in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
resources and services in course and research projects;<br />
• Knowledge management educators; teaching and training students and faculty<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation literacy and how to organize, preserve, and share their own<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation resources;<br />
• Knowledge management researchers, applying library and in<strong>for</strong>mation science<br />
and new digital technology to create new organizational (metadata), retrieval,<br />
and storage (preservation) options.<br />
CONCLUSION<br />
In the present scenario of change where everyday new technologies are<br />
emerging so knowledge management is the only tool to keep oneself in the race.<br />
Knowledge management is a powerful tool <strong>for</strong> promoting innovation, realizing and<br />
reengineering the various aspects of day to day activities of an organization. The<br />
utility of knowledge management in an academic organization / library can not be<br />
ignored. The knowledge is growing very fast pace in each and every aspect of life and<br />
it is very difficult <strong>for</strong> the professionals to disseminate the available in<strong>for</strong>mation to the<br />
deserving person without using the emerging techniques. The application of<br />
knowledge management is the only solution to acquire, store and retrieve the<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation effectively. The knowledge management helps library professionals in<br />
improving the services being rendered to their users. In<strong>for</strong>mation professionals have<br />
to recast their roles as knowledge professional. The librarian's roles should not be<br />
limited to being the custodians of in<strong>for</strong>mation but they have to acquire skills to keep<br />
themselves updated so as to cope intelligently and objectively <strong>for</strong> the effective and<br />
efficient knowledge management in an academic institute.<br />
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REFERENCES<br />
1. Abram, Stephen. 1997 Knowledge Management: Is this the Answer?<br />
http://www.in<strong>for</strong>mart.ca/sla/km/abram<br />
2. Ahmed, P. K., Lim, K.K., and Loh, A.Y.E. (2002). Learning through Knowledge<br />
Management. Ox<strong>for</strong>d: Butterworth-Heinemann.<br />
3. Branin, J.J. (2003). Knowledge Management in Academic Libraries: Building the<br />
Knowledge Bank at the Ohio State University. Journal of Library Administration,<br />
39(4):41-56<br />
4. Broadbeht, Marianne. 1996 The Phenomenon of Knowledge Management: What Does it<br />
Mean to the In<strong>for</strong>mation Profession? http://in<strong>for</strong>mationoutlook.com/may/ broadben.html<br />
5. Davenport, Thomas H. and Lawrence Prusak. 1993. Blow Up The Corporate Library.<br />
International Journal of In<strong>for</strong>mation Management 13, no. 6: 405-412.<br />
6. DiMattia, S. and Oder, N. (1997). Knowledge Management: Hope, Hype, or Harbinger?<br />
Library Journal, 122(15):33-35.<br />
7. Holsapple, C. W. (2003). (Ed.). Handbook on Knowledge Management. Berlin: Springer.<br />
8. Jantz, R.C. (2001). Knowledge management in academic libraries: special tools and<br />
processes to support in<strong>for</strong>mation professionals. Reference Services Review, 29(1):33.<br />
9. Murray, Philip C. 1995. In<strong>for</strong>mation, Knowledge, and document management technology<br />
http://www.ktic.com/topic6/<br />
10. Rao, J N. Knowledge Management by Library and In<strong>for</strong>mation Centers. University News<br />
vol.40, no.44; 2002 pp 4-10<br />
11. Shukla, A. and Srinivasan, R. (2002). Designing Knowledge Management Architecture:<br />
How to Implement Successful Knowledge Management Programs. New Delhi, India:<br />
Response Books.<br />
12. The International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) 69th General Conference<br />
and Council, (Berlin, Germany, August 2003). http://www.ifla.org/ IV/ifla69/prog03.htm<br />
13. Townley, C.T. (2001). Knowledge Management and Academic Libraries. College &<br />
<strong>Research</strong> Libraries, 62(1):44-55.<br />
14. Warier, Sudhir. Knowledge Management. New Delhi, India: Vikas, 2003<br />
159
Knowledge Communication in Academic and <strong>Research</strong><br />
Environment<br />
D. S. Thakur *<br />
Abstract<br />
Like business and industry organizations, communicating professional knowledge in<br />
educational organizations is a key activity in the organization. The paper focuses on the transfer of<br />
knowledge through communication across the organization and it highlights different approaches of<br />
knowledge communication adopted to communicate in educational organizations. The tree of<br />
knowledge grows with the communication and sharing of knowledge. Every organization identifies key<br />
approaches to communicate and share the existing knowledge across the organization to achieve the<br />
desired goals. Interaction and knowledge communication give a new dimension to the existing<br />
knowledge and ongoing projects. Knowledge team should develop a mechanism or network of<br />
knowledge specialists who have treasure house of human knowledge. Plat<strong>for</strong>m of communication and<br />
sharing of ideas, insights and knowledge resides among the intellectuals must be developed to nurture,<br />
strengthen and regenerate the knowledge. New ICT tools enhance the communication through<br />
knowledge sharing capabilities. It also highlights barriers in communication of knowledge among<br />
experts and decision makers.<br />
Keywords: Knowledge Communication; Knowledge Management.<br />
KNOWLEDGE COMMUNICATION<br />
Knowledge is one of the most important resources to an organization whether<br />
it is academic, research, business and industrial organization. Educational, learning<br />
and research organizations are facing a lot of pressure to process, manage and<br />
communicate knowledge in the fast changing world. Like business and industry<br />
organizations, communicating professional knowledge in educational organizations is<br />
a key activity in the organization. The paper focuses on the transfer of knowledge<br />
through communication across the organization and it highlights different approaches<br />
of knowledge communication adopted to communicate in educational organizations<br />
and workout the complex issues. Higher education organizations are the ocean of<br />
knowledge that can best be leveraged <strong>for</strong> exploiting the results of researches. There is<br />
a need <strong>for</strong> change in traditional culture of higher education due to the growing<br />
complexities, differentiation and multidisciplinary academic and research work.<br />
Traditional knowledge of books, journals, documents, reports, articles, case studies,<br />
dissertations, theses and other tools are known as knowledge assets of the<br />
organization and these traditional knowledge assets are being converted into digital<br />
<strong>for</strong>m, which can be easily stored, accessed, transferred, preserved and reused to<br />
strengthen the knowledge base among the community of researchers and improve<br />
organizational per<strong>for</strong>mance. The efficient and effective transfer and communication<br />
of knowledge, experiences, and insights among the intellectuals can be done<br />
effectively through the in<strong>for</strong>mation and communication technology (ICT) tools. “…<br />
Knowledge depends very much on the point of observation. Where you stand or what<br />
you know determines what you see or what you choose to be relevant”. 1<br />
Organizations are making ef<strong>for</strong>ts to capitalize on what they know and reuse it <strong>for</strong><br />
value addition and further innovations. Most successful organizations of today are<br />
* National University of Educational Planning and Administration, 17-B, Sri Aurobindo Marg, New<br />
Delhi – 110016, INDIA ,dsthakur@hotmail.com<br />
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those, which are more adaptable, resilent, and quick to change directions and care to<br />
the anticipated demands of their clients and employees.<br />
A great deal of organizational in<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge is stored in various<br />
<strong>for</strong>ms, in the <strong>for</strong>m of data that are collected through the daily activities and operations<br />
of the research organization. In some cases, it is important to offer immediate access<br />
to the data and in<strong>for</strong>mation in order to make short-term decisions, in other cases<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation is aggregated, verified and summarized to provide a longer-term<br />
perspective. Sometimes, knowledge cannot be fully utilized in the absence of<br />
adequate communication infrastructure. Knowledge rich organizations generate value<br />
from their intellectual and knowledge-based assets. One of the most important<br />
knowledge management activities of any academic organization is to collect,<br />
disseminate and communicate knowledge in the organization. “In order to manage<br />
knowledge assets, we need not merely to identify them but to understand them – in<br />
depth – in all their complexity: where they exist, how they grow, how managers’<br />
actions affect their viability”. 2 Through effective communication of knowledge,<br />
people can work and think over cross-purposes with each other on different facets of<br />
the issue. As a result, the tree of knowledge grows more with communication, sharing<br />
of ideas and transfer of knowledge through talks and discussions, lectures, debates<br />
and conversations, face-to-face communication, conferences, workshops and<br />
seminars. Knowledge communication practices are best supported through IT tools<br />
and Web-enabled infrastructure and practices. Web-enabled opportunities and<br />
practices not only deploy the new best practices to communicate, transfer and share<br />
knowledge but also offer new avenues to preserve and reuse the existing knowledge<br />
to spur innovations. The development of wireless communication technology has<br />
enabled the people to carry networked digital devices such as cellular phone, PDA,<br />
notebook computers and several other communication tools such as telephone, video<br />
conferencing, chat rooms, instant messaging, SMS (Short Message Service), E-mails,<br />
discussion <strong>for</strong>ums, audio and video messages, unified messaging, etc., which offer<br />
new ways to enrich communication, learning and knowledge transfer. However, some<br />
issues relating to proper timings of communication <strong>for</strong> correct planning, quality of<br />
knowledge transfer, management’s attitude towards views of experts and intellectuals,<br />
lack of proper recognition, exposition, appreciation and involvement of experts in<br />
discussions and important decisions are hurdles in the communication of knowledge.<br />
APPROACHES OF KNOWLEDGE COMMUNICATION<br />
In this article, some significant approaches of knowledge communication have<br />
been discussed which are being followed in the National University of Educational<br />
Planning and Administration (NUEPA) and the National Council of Educational<br />
<strong>Research</strong> and Training (NCERT) to communicate and share knowledge among<br />
individuals, groups and organizations. These approaches are being pursued to bring<br />
qualitative change in the working and services across the organization to achieve the<br />
desired goals.<br />
National University of Educational Planning and Administration is a premier<br />
organization established by the Ministry of Human Resource Development,<br />
Government of India. It is dealing with capacity building and research in planning and<br />
management of education not only in India but also in South Asia. In recognition of<br />
the pioneering work done by the organization in the field of educational planning and<br />
administration, the Government of India have empowered it to award its own degrees<br />
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y way of conferring it the status of Deemed to be University in August 2006. Like<br />
any Central University, NUEPA is fully maintained by the Government of India.<br />
With specialization in policy, planning and management in education, NUEPA<br />
is the professional wing of the Government of India. The prime concerns of NUEPA<br />
are with capacity building and research in educational policy, planning and<br />
management through research, training, consultancy and dissemination. NUEPA's<br />
origin can be traced to UNESCO Regional Center <strong>for</strong> Educational Planners and<br />
Administrators in 1961-62, in 1965, it was renamed as Asian Institute of Educational<br />
Planning and Administration. On the completion of the 10-year contract with<br />
UNESCO, the Government of India took it over and renamed the Institute as National<br />
Staff College <strong>for</strong> Educational Planners and Administrators in 1970. Subsequently the<br />
institute was renamed as National Institute of Educational Planning and<br />
Administration in 1979 emphasizing on research besides staff development.<br />
Promoting regional cooperation and international understanding in the field of<br />
human resource development is one of its major goals. Sharing of experience and<br />
resources, exchange of expertise and in<strong>for</strong>mation, are some of the steps that NUEPA<br />
takes in the direction of achieving such collective self-reliance among the developing<br />
countries. Both national and international delegates are encouraged to visit the<br />
institute. Study visits, regional seminars, workshops and short and long term training<br />
courses in educational planning and administration are organized <strong>for</strong> them. In the past,<br />
<strong>for</strong>eign participants have come from a wide array of regions including South, East and<br />
West Asia; Far East; Latin America; the Pacific; East, West and Southern Africa;<br />
Canada; Australia; USA and UK. NUEPA has also organized special tailor-made<br />
course <strong>for</strong> the benefit of international delegates e.g., from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka,<br />
China, etc.<br />
NCERT is an apex resource organization established in New Delhi on 1 st<br />
September 1961 as an autonomous organization registered under societies<br />
Registration Act of 1860 to assist and advise the Central and State Governments on<br />
academic matters related to school education in India. It is fully funded by the<br />
Government of India and provides academic and technical support <strong>for</strong> improvement<br />
of school education in India. It undertakes research, development, training, extension,<br />
publications and dissemination, and exchange programmes. NUEPA and NCERT<br />
both organizations are pursuing some key approaches to communicate knowledge to<br />
bring qualitative change in the academic research, training, transfer and dissemination<br />
of knowledge and services to achieve the desired goals. In this article, some<br />
significant approaches of knowledge communication such as arrange talks and<br />
discussions, lectures (teaching in classrooms), environment of debates and<br />
conversations, conferences, workshops and seminars, capture and appreciate the<br />
talents at workplace, sharing among intellectuals, strengthen knowledge repository,<br />
intranet, extranet and internet, etc. have been discussed which will rein<strong>for</strong>ce the<br />
intellectuals to communicate and share the knowledge and expertise among other<br />
employees across the organization. These approaches will also encourage the<br />
academicians to contribute their intellectual works, skills and expertise to strengthen<br />
the knowledge base to the future generation.<br />
Now the question arises why knowledge is pre-requisite <strong>for</strong> academic<br />
excellence? How it can be created, communicated and shared to grow the tree of<br />
knowledge across the organization. Burk (1999) stated, “knowledge management is<br />
not a project that begins and ends, but an ongoing and evolving change in the way an<br />
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organization operates.” 3 The knowledge communication techniques can be helpful in<br />
developing curriculum, preparing project <strong>for</strong> research studies, arrange seminars and<br />
conferences. Through the knowledge management system, the in<strong>for</strong>mation can best be<br />
used in ways that best promote the organization’s objectives and enhance services to<br />
the users.<br />
Talks and Discussions<br />
Organizations must arrange talks and discussions on the latest developments<br />
and complex issues to generate new ideas and communicate the research results. Such<br />
interactions can be fruitful and bring useful results <strong>for</strong> the betterment. Weekly talks<br />
and discussions among faculty and intellectuals brings collaborative, innovative and<br />
develop knowledge communication and sharing culture <strong>for</strong> the activity of learning<br />
and creation. Organizations should take an initiative to create an environment to<br />
refines, reinvents and interprets knowledge and develop sharing and open exchange of<br />
ideas, emotions and behavior. Knowledge is a social construct and it originates and<br />
spreads with the interaction and communication to each other or with others.<br />
Interaction and knowledge communication give a new dimension to the existing<br />
knowledge and ongoing projects.<br />
Lectures<br />
Lectures at the classrooms and training programmes are excellent way to<br />
communicate knowledge. Knowledge can be created and communicated by asking<br />
questions and watching the responses that provoke excited environment of<br />
conversations, responses and interactions. During classroom lectures sometime new<br />
ideas are created and developed through interaction between the teacher and students<br />
and these become the issues of debates, discussions and create knowledge. The<br />
brainstorming sessions must be recorded in the <strong>for</strong>m of knowledge repositories.<br />
Debates and Conversations<br />
Access of knowledge can be enhanced from the heads of few intellectuals to<br />
the other workers of the organization through better interaction and sharing and it is<br />
widely diffused around the organization through debates and conversations. Now-adays<br />
most of the knowledge enterprises are paying more attention to capture the tacit<br />
knowledge and insights, which comes to light through communication, interaction,<br />
collaboration and innovation. Tacit knowledge that remains in the heads, expertise<br />
and experience of the people and it is communicated and shared through<br />
conversations and debates. Lanzara and Patriotta argue “knowledge is always the<br />
outcome of interactive and controversial social processes.” Sometimes Confusions<br />
and misunderstandings among the intellectuals and skilled manpower cause downfall<br />
of the organization. Such type of situation can be handled by arranging meeting,<br />
joining the organization’s gatherings and arranging talks and debates.<br />
Conferences, Workshops and Seminars<br />
Best practices of sharing knowledge are through exhibitions, demonstrations<br />
and training sessions. Knowledge is diffused to the wide range of community through<br />
latest in<strong>for</strong>mation and communication technology (ICT) tools. These tools help to use<br />
and reuse knowledge several times to solve the real-world issues. Moreover, the<br />
World Wide Web (WWW) can greatly enhance the sharing of knowledge both within<br />
and outside organizations and geographically dispersed units. Conferences and<br />
workshops break the silence on various disciplines and issues and offer good results<br />
to solve the real world issues. Besides it offers an opportunity to discuss the issues<br />
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through face-to-face conversation. Moreover, a faculty member can call meeting of<br />
colleagues and intellectuals working in the organization to take collective approach<br />
towards the new projects and assignments s/he takes.<br />
Freedom to Take Risks and Experiments<br />
Experiments and innovations are the sources of creating new knowledge.<br />
Organizations must offer greater room to intellectuals and faculty to take risks and<br />
experiments <strong>for</strong> innovations and new projects. This will be a base <strong>for</strong> the creation of<br />
new knowledge. This autonomy leads the professionals to give a new direction <strong>for</strong> the<br />
development of knowledge. Sometimes people don’t take risks to nurture and promote<br />
innovative culture of learning and sharing of knowledge due to the jealousy and fear<br />
of the loss of job. Such autonomy of the organization offers opportunities to<br />
intellectuals to head their experiments towards the creation of new ideas without any<br />
fear.<br />
Strengthen Knowledge Repository<br />
Knowledge repository that covers organizational policies, procedures, meeting<br />
agendas, minutes, reports and other important published and unpublished documents<br />
<strong>for</strong> the future use of faculty, researchers and administrators. Knowledge workers<br />
should strive to capture the electronic products whether it is published or unpublished<br />
works from the faculty, intellectuals and project staff to preserve and enable them<br />
accessible and communicate the same through the networks to others. Its storage and<br />
retrieval process must be user friendly which sometimes poses many organizational<br />
and technical challenges <strong>for</strong> the designers of organizational knowledge management<br />
system. All organizational policies, procedures and official documents require a very<br />
efficient search procedure to retrieve thousands of organizational publications stored<br />
on the intranet and extranet environment of the organization and communicate to the<br />
needy users in right time.<br />
Network of Knowledge Communication Workers<br />
Knowledge team should develop a mechanism or network of knowledge<br />
specialists who have treasure house of human knowledge. The team should identify<br />
the knowledge experts within the organization that can contribute and communicate<br />
their expertise and experience. Organizational knowledge maps and directory of<br />
expert profiles containing in<strong>for</strong>mation of backgrounds, skills and expertise of<br />
individuals who are knowledgeable on multidisciplinary areas may help individuals to<br />
rapidly locate an expert who has knowledge to solve the current problem in the<br />
organization and its sub-units. Furthermore, organization must focus on the creation<br />
of talented expertise rather than attracting talented expertise. The most important<br />
resource in the knowledge economy system is the talents and expertise that grasp<br />
knowledge. Only talented stars can participate and communicate about knowledge<br />
innovation and create important link in organization’s knowledge innovation chain. 4<br />
Knowledge Communication through Sharing Workspace<br />
Plat<strong>for</strong>m of sharing of ideas, insights and knowledge resides among the<br />
intellectuals must be developed to nurture, strengthen and regenerate the knowledge.<br />
Communication of knowledge among the intellectuals and their units is significant<br />
approach of knowledge management. Web Space collaboration applications are new<br />
tools which enhance the communication through knowledge sharing capabilities.<br />
Through dynamic communication environment, an organization can become more<br />
productive and responsive. Other collaboration tools such as e-mail, Web<br />
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conferencing, discussion groups, alerts, workflow and document sharing are essential<br />
components. This approach assists to preserve, leverage and share the tacit knowledge<br />
easily and effectively – both inside and beyond the firewall. E-mail works well <strong>for</strong><br />
sharing of in<strong>for</strong>mation but Web Space in the organization offers rich sharing<br />
environment to workout the critical issues, or powerful way to get work done in a<br />
more systematic and effective way. It eliminates the geographic boundaries by<br />
providing online workplace to the team of faculty, research scholars, planners and<br />
intellectuals working in the organization to accomplish the mission together online to<br />
collaborate on policies, procedures, documents, issues, discussions, complicated tasks,<br />
evaluations and assessments.<br />
This can be done only if organization has well IT infrastructure and shared<br />
space. It integrates employees and knowledge workers on a single and open plat<strong>for</strong>m<br />
and facilitate thinking over the issues in a collective manner. The users can work<br />
together and respond more quickly, accurately and efficiently in single point of<br />
access.<br />
Electronic Mail<br />
Electronic mail is popularly known as E-mail. All organizations whether it is<br />
academic, business and research require ways to efficiently communicate and<br />
distribute in<strong>for</strong>mation such as news releases, seminar announcements, memos,<br />
training programmes, resource sharing, electronic document delivery and other<br />
academic work across teams, customers, suppliers and functional departments. E-mail<br />
is also used <strong>for</strong> group discussions and automatic alerting services. It is a very useful<br />
and convenient method to send notices, short notes and memos in the office. It has<br />
made publishing, discussing and communicate the academic conferences, seminars<br />
very easily and inexpensively in academic, research and business world. It is very<br />
popular means of faster communication that takes only a few seconds <strong>for</strong> a message to<br />
reach to any place of the world. It is not limited to transfer the text but also allows the<br />
transfer of drawings, pictures, maps, images, graphics, sound and programmes on<br />
different working sites at different locations. The objective of electronic mail is to<br />
improve the efficiency and effectiveness of written communication by utilizing<br />
the power of the computer and the speed of data transmission. Its purpose is to<br />
make it faster, cheaper and easier to transmit in<strong>for</strong>mation from Office to Office by<br />
applying the latest developments in data processing technology. Communications<br />
through e-mails can be archived. Many in<strong>for</strong>mation technologies related organizations<br />
keep their important messages and records in electronic <strong>for</strong>m than printed. It is helpful<br />
in solving he space problem and helps the management to speed up the better<br />
decisions on important matters quickly and makes easy and more convenient<br />
<strong>for</strong> readers to share the knowledge and in<strong>for</strong>mation resources of other libraries<br />
promptly. Some good IT companies have developed a mechanism to archive the e-<br />
mails that bring solution of automatic classification of messages and enrich and<br />
content of e-mail messages.<br />
Other ICT tools to communicate professional knowledge are electronic<br />
discussion <strong>for</strong>ums, audio and video messages, web conferencing, SMS (short message<br />
service), instant message are also the best ways of communication of knowledge.<br />
These offer facilities to clients to manage their e-mails, faxes, SMS, voicemail in an<br />
integrated system. These messages can be filtered, stored, <strong>for</strong>warded and retrieved.<br />
These messages are also archived <strong>for</strong> the very future purposes. These methods of<br />
communication help people to get in touch with each other and communicate during<br />
165
hurdles. Instant message are delivered/sent immediately and the same are ready by the<br />
receiver. SMS is also a text messaging service that is provided through mobile<br />
phones. This type of text messaging service is phone-based instant messaging. This<br />
service can be used to receive important news and alerts.<br />
Intranet, Extranet and Internet<br />
Organization must develop the strategy to capture, nurture and strengthen the<br />
intranet activities of the organization to handle various types of internal knowledge<br />
and expertise among employees. Easy access to the knowledge management system is<br />
important <strong>for</strong> timely and effective decision making during meetings. Major goal of<br />
any knowledge management system is to structure the unstructured in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
scattered in the organizational units in such fashion that can be easily accessed and<br />
shared in the organization. Further, it will assist to the management and decisionmaking<br />
body to make decisions, evaluation of faculty members and observe to what<br />
extent the organization has achieved its goals. Knowledge Management team should<br />
fix the responsibility to train the faculty, administrators and management to access<br />
and use the tools and in<strong>for</strong>mation to make effective use of sharing in the organization.<br />
This team needs to strengthen and give responsibility to department to assist in the<br />
designing and development of knowledge management system to communicate<br />
knowledge according to their work culture so that research studies, data analysis and<br />
other in<strong>for</strong>mation tools could be utilized in pursuit of excellence. Sharing of<br />
organization’s activities such as institutional assessment, research, training and<br />
planning to furnish the in<strong>for</strong>mation without any hesitation strengthen the knowledge<br />
pool of the organization. Through this the management and decision making body can<br />
take decision regarding recruitment of faculty and staff <strong>for</strong> research, training, group<br />
meetings, research technology, education planning and policy and web development.<br />
Every organization must emphasize to build a system which could capture all<br />
the organization’s internal knowledge and integrate the same with useful outside<br />
knowledge such as educational news from the Web and e-mail communications with<br />
intellectual groups, discussions, talks etc. The main purpose of the intranet is to create<br />
one-stop-pool <strong>for</strong> knowledge rather than having to go to several places <strong>for</strong> the<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation you need. The site can also feature other organizational in<strong>for</strong>mation such<br />
as budget in<strong>for</strong>mation, financial benefits, work-in-progress documents, sale of<br />
documents, archived e-mail discussions of internal and external intellectuals, data and<br />
manpower directory, etc. Outdated, irrelevant and inaccurate data and in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
should be obsolete from the intranet on the feedback of the internal as well as online<br />
users. Moreover, other in<strong>for</strong>mation, which cannot be uploaded on the Web site is<br />
accessible and shared on intranet, e.g. online databases and in<strong>for</strong>mation about official<br />
circulation. Sharing of ideas on intranet radically improve an organization’s<br />
development and breaks communication barrier across the organization. Indeed, an<br />
intranet is one step closer to the paperless office and probably it is a one of the major<br />
benefit to the entire organization such as reduce paper expenses, increase the<br />
productivity and morale, save the time of the staff and bring closer to each other.<br />
Norris et al (2003) states, “Transactable e-knowledge and knowledge networking will<br />
become the lifeblood of knowledge sharing. They will support a Knowledge Economy<br />
based on creating, distributing and adding value to knowledge, the very activities in<br />
which colleges and universities are engaged. Yet few colleges and universities have<br />
taken sufficient account of the need to use their knowledge assets to achieve strategic<br />
differentiation. 5<br />
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PROBLEMS/BARRIERS IN KNOWLEDGE COMMUNICATION<br />
However, some issues relating to proper timings of communication <strong>for</strong> correct<br />
planning, quality of knowledge transfer, management’s attitude towards views of<br />
experts and intellectuals, lack of proper recognition, exposition, lack of appreciation<br />
and involvement of experts in discussions and important decisions are hurdles in the<br />
communication of knowledge. Martin J Eppler 6 in his study knowledge<br />
communication has defined problems in communicating knowledge among experts<br />
and decision makers. Some barriers, which become obstacles in the communication of<br />
professional knowledge are as:<br />
1. Sometimes experts lack the sense of interpretation of the problem, poor feedback,<br />
and follow short cuts to quick gain are obstacles in the communication of<br />
knowledge.<br />
2. Knowledge communication is a reciprocal action and it depends on the tuning of<br />
sender and receiver. It fails in the absence of tuning of sender and receiver.<br />
3. It fails because of hesitation and fear of exposure between expert and decision<br />
maker.<br />
4. Experts do not communicate, transfer and share their experiences, insights and<br />
ideas due to hostile, strenuous/arduous relationships, politics and lack of interest<br />
of decision makers.<br />
5. Knowledge communication remains silence and absent during the hostile, nonconducive<br />
and unfriendly environment.<br />
6. Decision makers do not use acquired knowledge in on going projects when it is<br />
needed. They prefer collective knowledge than unique advice.<br />
7. Ignorance of experts’ expertise, insights, advice and claims by the decision<br />
makers or management team.<br />
8. Decision makers do not integrate new received in<strong>for</strong>mation in their decision<br />
making process because of in<strong>for</strong>mation overload.<br />
9. Limited capacity or ability of decision makers to grasp the knowledge delivered<br />
by experts because of their limited ability to receive in<strong>for</strong>mation.<br />
10. It is difficult to articulate the tacit knowledge and convert the same in explicit<br />
<strong>for</strong>m.<br />
11. It fails when colleagues do not attend meetings, discussions because of jealous<br />
and support of management to one person.<br />
12. It fails when hoarded/received knowledge not used <strong>for</strong> the betterment of on going<br />
complicated issues.<br />
13. It fails when it is not interpreted and translated rightly in the absence of language<br />
experts.<br />
CONCLUSION<br />
Colleges and universities are the ocean of knowledge and it is a great scope to<br />
apply knowledge management practices in these organizations to accumulate,<br />
communicate and share the knowledge. Knowledge-work in the academic and<br />
research environment has changed with the emergence of globalization of education.<br />
Their survival not only depends on the acquisition, storage, publication and retrieval<br />
but also how the knowledge is filtered, organized and communicated to achieve the<br />
desired mission. Innovations in ICT has motivated the knowledgeable generation of<br />
today to understand the traditional culture of university and higher education and<br />
prepare a new blend and understanding of the work and culture of the universities.<br />
167
Knowledge communication network of the educational organizations should be<br />
equipped with the next generation of tools, perspectives, e-knowledge, skilled<br />
manpower and practices of knowledge sharing. Knowledge Communication does<br />
not mean what is communicated alone; it is also how one communicates. Knowledge<br />
communication requires reciprocal interactions among the intellectuals and decision<br />
makers to work on a complex issue and reconstruct or redesign the structure of issue.<br />
Effective communication and transfer of knowledge across the organization and<br />
beyond the firewall can best be leveraged through the use of new practices and<br />
technologies and by avoiding misunderstandings among the experts and decision<br />
makers. The advantages of technology-based communication are that all messages<br />
and communications can be archived electronically. These archived communications<br />
are very valuable <strong>for</strong> the experts and decision makers if these are exploited fully when<br />
needed.<br />
Transfer of university and other academic environment in to knowledge-based<br />
organizations requires good practices of knowledge sharing and communication in the<br />
university and higher education setups like corporate sectors. The tree of knowledge<br />
grows with the culture of sharing and communicating knowledge. No doubt effective<br />
and efficient techniques of communication of knowledge in the organization provide<br />
improved and qualitative research results. Academic and research organization must<br />
develop the network of people who can communicate their experiences, expertise and<br />
knowledge whatever they have and available across the organization.<br />
REFERENCES<br />
1. G. Von Krogh and J. Roos, “Five Claims of Knowing”, European Management<br />
Journal. Vol. 14, 1996, pp. 423-426.<br />
2. D. Leonard-Barton, Wellsprings of Knowledge, Boston: Harvard Business School<br />
Press, 1995.<br />
3. Mike Burk, “Knowledge Management: Everyone Benefits by Sharing In<strong>for</strong>mation”,<br />
Public Roads, Vol. 63, No. 3, 1999. http://www.tfhrc.gov/ pubrds/novdec99/km.htm<br />
4. D. S. Thakur and K. S. Thakur, “Knowledge Management: A Growing Discipline”,<br />
Library Herald, Vol. 41, No. 4, 2003, pp. 259-274.<br />
5. Donald M. Norris and others. “A Revolution in Knowledge Sharing”, EDUCAUSE<br />
Review, September/October 2003, pp. 14-26.<br />
6. Martin J. Eppler, Knowledge Communication, In: David G. Schwartz, Encyclopedia<br />
of Knowledge Management, Hershey: IDEA Group Reference, 2006. 317-325.<br />
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IT enabled KM System/Tools Development in<br />
Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL)<br />
P.B. Mishra*, J.P. Moolani*, R. Mago * and U. Chandra *<br />
Abstract<br />
This paper summarizes the experiences and the future plans towards IT enabled KM<br />
System/ Tools Development in Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL).<br />
In order to facilitate generation, trans<strong>for</strong>mation, preservation and dissemination of<br />
knowledge resources of NPCIL, a corporate wide approach has been adopted <strong>for</strong><br />
development of IT enabled KM System/ Tools. Many new projects towards work flow<br />
automation, specifically targeting training/learning processes, are being undertaken. Some<br />
processes such as engineers’ selection, induction training, placement, licensing &<br />
qualification have been fully automated.<br />
A company-wide web-application called ‘Corporate Human Asset, Review and<br />
Management System (CHARMS) has been developed and launched to capture, identify and<br />
map knowledge assets within the organization.<br />
Web based application called ‘Licensing and Qualification In<strong>for</strong>mation &<br />
Development System (LIQUIDS)’ is continuously fine tuned to capture problem solving<br />
/diagnostic skills.<br />
KM portal facilitates involvement of ‘Subject Matter Experts’ <strong>for</strong> knowledge<br />
creation/trans<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge sharing and development of Computer /Web Based<br />
Training (CBT/WBT) has been launched.<br />
A web application tilted ‘Glossary’, <strong>for</strong> development and management of<br />
definition/drill-down description of commonly used technical terms, has been developed.<br />
Taxonomies <strong>for</strong> definition sources, references, related subjects, developer / reviewer<br />
references and such other are continuously being updated and refined.<br />
1. EVOLUTION OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN NPCIL<br />
From year 2000 onwards, expansion of organization and retention of<br />
knowledge resources became the key issues in NPCIL to meet country’s energy need.<br />
Superannuation of experienced personnel and attrition of young engineers needed a<br />
makeover in erstwhile corporate policy of knowledge management and training, <strong>for</strong><br />
preserving existing knowledge and generating new knowledge <strong>for</strong> competitive<br />
business advantages. The basic need of uni<strong>for</strong>m and systematic knowledge<br />
management approach in NPCIL was to inculcate confidence towards preparedness of<br />
NPCIL to undertake massive expansion program by ensuring adequate knowledge<br />
resources and competent trained staffing.<br />
2. THE APPROACH ADOPTED BY NPCIL FOR KM<br />
In order to achieve above, across-the-board approach was adopted. A<br />
dedicated KM group under leadership of senior management personnel was created at<br />
corporate office in order to ensure uni<strong>for</strong>m and systematic KM approach at multiple<br />
NPP sites across the country (a few sites with multi reactor technologies such as<br />
BWR, FBR, PHWR and PWR – also of different generations).<br />
* Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. (NPCIL), VS Bhavan, Anushaktinagar, Mumbai 400 094.<br />
169
As KM and learning activities <strong>for</strong> operating personnel were already streamlined,<br />
focused attention was given <strong>for</strong> qualification development <strong>for</strong><br />
construction/project/engineering personnel. Committees and facilitator groups were<br />
constituted in the corporate offices <strong>for</strong> finalization of qualification procedures.<br />
Corporate interventions were made to ensure embedding knowledge elements in all<br />
the new business process automation projects (core business as well as commercial<br />
systems) so that the generated knowledge can be trans<strong>for</strong>med, stored and<br />
disseminated <strong>for</strong> business needs.<br />
The practices and methods followed in NPCIL <strong>for</strong> development, establishment and<br />
maintenance of knowledge management programs were primarily designed to achieve<br />
the following:<br />
• Enhance effectiveness of overall knowledge management methods based on<br />
identification of functional areas requiring improvement.<br />
• Incorporation of knowledge management systems/tools to promote capturing<br />
of implicit knowledge and <strong>for</strong> supporting of effective dissemination of<br />
knowledge.<br />
• Design and development of KM tools and improvements based on users’<br />
feedback.<br />
Three major subgroups (‘Development and Implementation of Knowledge<br />
Dissemination Programs’, ‘KM System and Tools Development’ and ‘Management of<br />
KM Establishments’) were constituted <strong>for</strong> enhancing the KM activities.<br />
This write-up summarizes the outline of on-going / proposed knowledge<br />
management system/tools development activities <strong>for</strong> tapping and disseminating<br />
organization’s intellectual assets — both explicit (known externally – recorded) and<br />
tacit (personal know-how) <strong>for</strong> positive business results. The guiding factors <strong>for</strong><br />
development of IT enabled KM systems/ tools are:<br />
• Development of new approach <strong>for</strong> human asset management - acquisition and<br />
retention. Identification, career progression and redeployment of intellectual<br />
assets to organization’s best advantage.<br />
• Work Flow Automation of Training/Learning processes and development of<br />
knowledge management tools including web based automated tools, e-<br />
learning, and computer based training packages etc. Enhancement of<br />
effectiveness of KM systems/tools already developed.<br />
• Development of management system <strong>for</strong> various training /qualification<br />
Programs required <strong>for</strong> developing and maintaining required competencies<br />
among technical personnel <strong>for</strong> effective discharge of their duties.<br />
• Making corporate in<strong>for</strong>mation accessible to employee through knowledge<br />
portal, knowledge bank , communities of practices/ interests , groups of<br />
subject matter experts and sharing of the best practices<br />
• Analysis of manpower requirement, interface and co-ordination <strong>for</strong> engineer’s<br />
recruitment, allocations, follow up with training centers at various sites <strong>for</strong><br />
ensuring training as per curriculum and their placement.<br />
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• Harness IT infrastructure effectively <strong>for</strong> maximum advantage and to promote<br />
e-learning.<br />
• Knowledge support and co-ordination <strong>for</strong> development of Fuel Handling<br />
System (FHS) simulators <strong>for</strong> pressurized heavy water reactors.<br />
3. DEVELOPMENT OF CORPORATE HUMAN ASSET REVIEW AND<br />
MANAGEMENT SYSTEM<br />
A company-wide web-application called ‘Corporate Human Asset,<br />
Review and Management System (CHARMS) has been developed and launched to<br />
capture, identify and map knowledge assets within the organization. The in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
captured on skill profile, area of expertise/interest etc was suitably integrated with job<br />
qualification requirement <strong>for</strong> finalization of employees’ knowledge dissemination<br />
programs across technologies and processes. This has also helped organization in<br />
redeployment of personnel. The CHARMS will be able to generate dynamic, user<br />
defined, screen based queries with exportable reports (typically in portable document<br />
<strong>for</strong>mat file, excel file, rtf/word file, ASCII text file and A4 size print file) in graphical<br />
and <strong>for</strong>matted text structure. The system is envisaged to support the host of analytical<br />
queries and reports <strong>for</strong> generating decision support in<strong>for</strong>mation on HR and knowledge<br />
base.<br />
4. WORK FLOW AUTOMATION OF TRAINING/LEARNING PROCESSES<br />
Many new projects towards work flow automation, specifically targeting<br />
training/learning processes, are being undertaken to capture undocumented explicit<br />
knowledge /convertible tacit knowledge. The major objective <strong>for</strong> such automation is<br />
to embed by Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) knowledge capture activities during<br />
execution of routine work processes so that the captured knowledge can be<br />
manipulated, trans<strong>for</strong>med and disseminated through alternate KM processes.<br />
Typically some of processes such as engineers’ selection, induction training,<br />
placement, licensing & qualification have been fully automated.<br />
Licensing and Qualification In<strong>for</strong>mation & Development System (LIQUIDS)<br />
Web based application <strong>for</strong> managing work flow of licensing and qualification<br />
processes <strong>for</strong> operation and maintenance personnel of Indian NPPs called ‘Licensing<br />
and Qualification In<strong>for</strong>mation & Development System (LIQUIDS)’ is continuously<br />
fine tuned to capture problem solving /diagnostic skills. Formal on-job-training (OJT)<br />
is specifically embedded in LIQUIDS to promote mentoring and coaching through<br />
supervisors. The LIQUIDS addresses the following:<br />
• Regulatory guidelines prescribe implementation of systems approach to<br />
training (SAT) <strong>for</strong> identification of per<strong>for</strong>mance requirement and development<br />
of the training / verification system <strong>for</strong> all the O & M positions. The<br />
LIQUIDS addresses the above requirements by providing an automated<br />
method <strong>for</strong> design and development of training and verification system, where<br />
training / learning objectives are derived through systematic analysis of jobs /<br />
tasks. LIQUIDS also provides flexibility to accommodate changes in training<br />
procedure and training contents arising due to regulatory feedback, operating<br />
experience, plant modification/design changes, per<strong>for</strong>mance feedback from<br />
line managers, feedback through peer review and other feedback.<br />
171
• Operation personnel are required in commissioning phase of nuclear power<br />
project; there<strong>for</strong>e, development and approval of licensing procedure related<br />
documentation becomes a pre-criticality regulatory requirement <strong>for</strong> a new<br />
NPP. As a practice, preparation of such documents and systems is achieve<br />
involving commissioning engineers, newly deployed operation & maintenance<br />
personnel from various disciplines (including station training personnel),<br />
subject matter experts from HQs/ other stations and HQ SAT facilitators.<br />
LIQUIDS helps these personnel in following ways:<br />
a. LIQUIDS is available to users through NPCIL intranet in <strong>for</strong>m of a web<br />
application which stores data at a central location. There<strong>for</strong>e, it facilitates<br />
speedy, concurrent and multiunit collaboration <strong>for</strong> development /<br />
documentation and approvals of training content and procedures.<br />
b. LIQUIDS facilitates involvement of subject matter experts by<br />
i. Making the training system available in <strong>for</strong>m of web application at his<br />
desk.<br />
ii. Guiding entry/modification of in<strong>for</strong>mation in a systematic and<br />
progressive manner to ensure completeness of data entry and<br />
consequently achieve SAT compliance.<br />
iii. Providing sufficient training system triggers to ensure<br />
comprehensiveness of new training courseware development.<br />
iv. Relieving subject matter experts from in<strong>for</strong>mation linking, <strong>for</strong>matting,<br />
deciphering complex training terminology, avoidable rework / repeated<br />
iteration and avoidable coordination with station / HQ training<br />
personnel.<br />
• Licensing and Qualification System is linked with the Qualification Incentive<br />
Scheme (QIS). For older stations, it has been observed that QIS <strong>for</strong> personnel<br />
from operation function is implemented at the early stage of plant operation<br />
(<strong>for</strong> new NPP mainly - due to regulatory requirement of availability of<br />
licensed staff) whereas implementation of QIS is generally delayed <strong>for</strong> other<br />
functions (maintenance, chemical lab and such others). This delay is mainly<br />
due to pre-occupation of station personnel in commissioning activities<br />
resulting to non availability of comprehensive QIS documents required <strong>for</strong><br />
approvals. LIQUIDS provides solution <strong>for</strong> above by cutting down the<br />
development time <strong>for</strong> document generation. This is achieved by facilitating<br />
involvement of subject matter experts as explained above in sub-paragraph 2.b<br />
and by providing a uni<strong>for</strong>m and concurrent approach <strong>for</strong> QIS development and<br />
documentation methodology <strong>for</strong> all the positions in different functions.<br />
• LIQUIDS provides a uni<strong>for</strong>m approach in training system development across<br />
different operating stations. This helps in monitoring and auditing of<br />
implementation of QIS and SAT across the operating stations.<br />
• LIQUIDS provides a system <strong>for</strong><br />
a. Licensing/qualification Examination management <strong>for</strong> all the positions<br />
b. Checklist program management <strong>for</strong> all the positions<br />
c. Training and verification record management<br />
172
d. Verifying / validating the effectiveness of training program<br />
Figure-1: Home page <strong>for</strong> LIQUIDS<br />
Promoting Communities of Practices and Groups of Subject Matter Experts through<br />
Web Application <strong>for</strong> Examination Management System<br />
Communities of O&M personnel and groups of subject matter experts have<br />
been established <strong>for</strong> licensing and qualification activities. The sharing of experiences<br />
during development of courseware, syllabus, questions/question papers, checklist and<br />
evaluation are one of the important tools <strong>for</strong> capturing convertible tacit knowledge.<br />
Examination Management System is workflow automation of qualification<br />
examination <strong>for</strong> operating stations. The module has been implemented fully<br />
(schedule, nomination, paper generation, answer-sheet management, marks entry,<br />
result declaration) <strong>for</strong> conduct of examinations <strong>for</strong> all the stations through HQs. The<br />
module also includes development and maintenance of ‘Question Bank’ <strong>for</strong> licensing<br />
examination <strong>for</strong> all operating stations. The ‘Question Bank’ module has capability to<br />
capture and evaluate objective type questions also.<br />
Similar system would be developed <strong>for</strong> HQs personnel also. A typical<br />
snapshot of first screen of web application is given below:<br />
173
Figure-2: Home page <strong>for</strong> Centralised Licensing Examination Management System<br />
Automation of recruitment of engineers<br />
Selection process <strong>for</strong> fresh engineers were revisited and revised. Webapplication<br />
<strong>for</strong> Engineers’ Recruitment through BARC Training School was<br />
developed and implemented. The application is a comprehensive Internet portal <strong>for</strong><br />
publishing all the important in<strong>for</strong>mation related to engineer’s recruitment. Some of<br />
the salient features of the application are listed below:<br />
• Publish online advertisement and associated in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
• Submission of online application <strong>for</strong>m by candidates<br />
• View/Print ‘data filled net <strong>for</strong>m’ and application status by candidates<br />
• Online application screening<br />
• Online application status update by NPCIL<br />
• Issue of online admit card and written test in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
• Generation of reports required <strong>for</strong> written examination such as<br />
center/discipline wise candidate list, application status, Demand draft related<br />
reports etc.<br />
• Automated evaluation of written examination test<br />
• Automated written test examination evaluation and preparation of merit panel<br />
• Interview schedule/in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
• Updation of Interview results and medical examination status/ result<br />
• Publish final selection panel / in<strong>for</strong>mation to selected candidates<br />
• Method <strong>for</strong> interaction/response to candidate queries<br />
174
Placement Module<br />
Figure-3: Home page <strong>for</strong> Engineers’ recruitment website<br />
It is a web-based module, through which, NPCIL training centres (conducting<br />
classroom, field training and med term/final viva) can update trainees’ final marks<br />
and choice <strong>for</strong> placement on central server located at HQs. The module has expedited<br />
the process of final placement and we are able to in<strong>for</strong>m TSOs about their place of<br />
posting well in advance be<strong>for</strong>e their proceeding <strong>for</strong> final vacation (earlier method was<br />
to in<strong>for</strong>m about their place of posting at their place of residence through email or<br />
post). The system automatically:<br />
• Calculates the overall weighted marks <strong>for</strong> all the trainees in different streams<br />
of reactor technology and prepares a merit panel <strong>for</strong> each stream and each<br />
‘discipline within stream’<br />
• Calculates the overall weighted marks <strong>for</strong> all the trainees across the streams of<br />
reactor technology and prepares a merit panel across the streams<br />
• Calculates the number of increments to be awarded on absorption based on the<br />
specified criteria<br />
• Allocates place of posting to each TSOs based on the merit of TSOs, choice<br />
exercised and vacancies at NPCIL units<br />
• Generates relevant reports including report <strong>for</strong> final viva, final placement and<br />
award of increments<br />
A typical snapshot of first screen of web application is given below:<br />
175
Glossary Development<br />
Figure-4: Home page of Placement module <strong>for</strong> Trainee Engineers<br />
GLOSSARY is intended to provide:<br />
• A comprehensive reference and development portal <strong>for</strong> important definitions<br />
of technical terms used in NPCIL.<br />
• A comprehensive feedback mechanism <strong>for</strong> continual improvement / upgradation<br />
of technical terminology and the in-house developed system.<br />
• A reference portal <strong>for</strong> definitions of important technical terminology from<br />
other agencies (provided as linked web-site / approved published document).<br />
The initial version of GLOSSARY is being released with sample definitions<br />
extracted from glossaries of AERB, IAEA, US-NRC, European-Nuclear-Society,<br />
World Nuclear Association etc. It supports the following activities:<br />
• Text search of definitions of glossary terms<br />
• View structural categorization such as definition sources, references, related<br />
subjects, developer / reviewer references etc.<br />
• Development of new glossary terms with structured categorization<br />
• Review/approval of new glossary terms<br />
• Multi-level user definitions and graded user interface<br />
• Capture /view feedback on individual glossary items<br />
A committee <strong>for</strong> monitoring and approving glossary content has been <strong>for</strong>med<br />
<strong>for</strong> enriching the technical content. A few key persons are to be identified from major<br />
groups of HQs <strong>for</strong> development of new terminology. A typical snapshot of first<br />
screen of web application is given below:<br />
176
Figure-5: Screen print <strong>for</strong> Glossary<br />
Development of Knowledge Management Portal<br />
Knowledge Management portal is envisaged to be gateway to knowledge<br />
repository and provides systems/ tools to tap/ disseminate tacit knowledge. It<br />
provides a plat<strong>for</strong>m <strong>for</strong> knowledge contribution, sharing in<strong>for</strong>mation and providing<br />
feedback <strong>for</strong> the employees of the organization. It provides interface to KM systems/<br />
tools/programs/aids and facilitates involvement of ‘Subject Matter Experts’ <strong>for</strong><br />
knowledge creation/trans<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge sharing. Important knowledge<br />
gaps can be identified and promoted here.<br />
At present, templates <strong>for</strong> KM portal have been developed and needs<br />
exhaustive knowledge resource structuring, <strong>for</strong>matting and storage. A typical<br />
snapshot of first screen of portal is given below:<br />
Figure-6: Home page <strong>for</strong> Knowledge Management Portal<br />
177
Extension of Qualification Systems <strong>for</strong> Corporate Personnel<br />
Qualification schemes have been development <strong>for</strong> construction/project/<br />
engineering personnel in line with the scheme in existence <strong>for</strong> operation personnel. A<br />
generalized approach of qualification is described below:<br />
• For qualification structure purpose, multi-layered qualification structure <strong>for</strong><br />
each directorate/ group would be defined.<br />
• Level-V would be <strong>for</strong> Tradesman/ draughtsman, level-IV would be <strong>for</strong><br />
Scientific Assistants and level-III to I & ‘management’ level would be <strong>for</strong><br />
engineers.<br />
• Level-V and IV would primarily be ‘per<strong>for</strong>mers’ level. Two levels of<br />
competence namely ‘supervisors’ and ‘per<strong>for</strong>mers’ would be arrived at <strong>for</strong><br />
engineers. While per<strong>for</strong>mers needed to be trained to execute the tasks<br />
considering all the micro level activities in the “Be<strong>for</strong>e”, “During” and “After”<br />
phases in the tasks, the supervisory personnel needed to plan, verify, guide and<br />
liaise with upper management <strong>for</strong> communication on the tasks executed and<br />
those anticipated.<br />
• The functional per<strong>for</strong>mance requirements would be compiled <strong>for</strong> each<br />
directorate/group and would be structured in major and minor categories of<br />
technical skills (responsibility and duty elements). Also, technical subjects and<br />
associated hardware of identified group/ directorate would be identified.<br />
• The compiled in<strong>for</strong>mation would <strong>for</strong>m main reference <strong>for</strong> training need<br />
analysis and as a basis <strong>for</strong> analysis of position-wise responsibilities, duties and<br />
tasks.<br />
• For management positions, interface, services, specific design, safety and<br />
regulatory requirements would be the additional basis.<br />
• Based on above need analysis, a short list of assortment of important tasks<br />
would be finalized in consultation with each directorate / groups to ensure that<br />
the assorted tasks cover all the activities towards each of the key objectives<br />
and per<strong>for</strong>mance indicators of respective directorate/group.<br />
• Accordingly, training programs <strong>for</strong> these tasks would be covered under initial,<br />
update, upgrade and refresher training module.<br />
• There would be definite credit point <strong>for</strong> each training courses. There would be<br />
credit points <strong>for</strong> development of training material as well as <strong>for</strong> conduct of<br />
training session.<br />
• A candidate <strong>for</strong> identified level would be allowed to appear in <strong>for</strong>mal<br />
assessment examination only if he acquires minimum definite credits points.<br />
• The enlarged view of identified tasks to cater to varied job conditions,<br />
conceptual design, academic aspects reliability and life management aspects,<br />
would be structured in the examination syllabus of each level <strong>for</strong> <strong>for</strong>mal<br />
assessment.<br />
• A candidate would be declared ‘qualified’ <strong>for</strong> identified level, once he clears<br />
qualification examination and assessment interview. A reward system <strong>for</strong><br />
‘qualified’ employee may also be developed.<br />
Above development approach is depicted below in activity flow diagram:<br />
178
Functio<br />
Positio<br />
Task list<br />
Task to<br />
Training<br />
Matrix<br />
•Initial<br />
•Update<br />
•Upgrad<br />
Function<br />
analysis<br />
Responsibilit<br />
y/ Duty<br />
Task<br />
analysis<br />
Design<br />
Res. /<br />
Duty<br />
Conditio<br />
Standard<br />
Learning<br />
Objective<br />
Subject<br />
Duty area<br />
Knowledg<br />
Skill<br />
Template<br />
Sequence<br />
/<br />
Syllabus/Exa<br />
m papers<br />
Exam<br />
Management<br />
CHES<br />
Entrylevel<br />
Verification<br />
Learning<br />
steps<br />
Development<br />
Test/ Lesson<br />
plan<br />
Lesson<br />
Pl<br />
Credit<br />
oi t<br />
Content<br />
developm<br />
Reference<br />
Figure-7: Activity flow diagram of<br />
E-learning and Technical In<strong>for</strong>mation Resource <strong>Centre</strong><br />
A project on e-learning <strong>for</strong> development of Computer /Web Based Training<br />
(CBT/WBT) has been launched. Technical In<strong>for</strong>mation Resource <strong>Centre</strong>, a repository<br />
of a wide variety of technical documents, e-books, reports and journals in electronic<br />
and physical <strong>for</strong>m is being continuously strengthened. Reference document Section<br />
(RDC) which serves to retain/provide the archived reports, design documents and<br />
manufacturers’ manuals is also under up-gradation.<br />
5. CONCLUDING REMARKS<br />
The practices and methods knowledge management in NPCIL have evolved<br />
with a built-in knowledge capture mechanism <strong>for</strong> disseminating the required quality<br />
of knowledge to NPP personnel. The focus has been to master and manage high<br />
technology while producing good financial results without compromising on safety.<br />
The Corporation is seized with the installation of systems approach to knowledge<br />
management methodology and in<strong>for</strong>mation management system in all its traditional<br />
qualification systems so as to make it fully knowledge resource sensitive.<br />
179
Nuclear Knowledge Management (NKM) at IGCAR:<br />
A case study on Fast Reactors<br />
A.Narayanan*, J.Srinivasan*, V.Rajendran* and M.Somasekharan *<br />
Abstract<br />
Knowledge is increasingly being recognized as a primary source of wealth that makes a difference<br />
between success and failure. Managing knowledge can be seen as the process governing creation, the<br />
dissemination and utilization of knowledge. Any organization carrying out research & development<br />
activities in nuclear engineering, especially in diversified areas of Fast Reactor technology to solve topical<br />
problems based on experiences, model-oriented experiments and fundamental research, needs a<br />
continuously updated body of knowledge.<br />
The loss of organizational memory of nuclear knowledge in governments, organizations,<br />
academia and research institutes could become the precursor in dealing with the problems in nuclear<br />
safety, security and non-proliferation. Thus knowledge management of fast reactor technology has emerged<br />
as a growing challenge in recent years.<br />
This paper covers the general aspects of Knowledge Management including fundamental concepts<br />
and overview model <strong>for</strong> KM depicting explicit and tacit knowledge transfer on fast reactors. It also briefs<br />
the IAEA’s initiatives on KM activities practiced in their member countries on fast reactors. The authors<br />
are dwelling upon the procedures and methods <strong>for</strong> creating module <strong>for</strong> knowledge preservation and<br />
maintenance to be followed in IGCAR – taking FBTR as a case study.<br />
An effective KM tool is needed to assist, understand, benchmark the current practices followed<br />
against their past per<strong>for</strong>mances. Examples of KM per<strong>for</strong>mance indicators include savings due to the reuse<br />
of knowledge; availability of expertise networks; time to create new knowledge, accessibility and<br />
availability of various KM & in<strong>for</strong>mation sharing tools to peers and contributors as well.<br />
1. INTRODUCTION<br />
The fast reactor technology, the mission oriented endeavour of this centre, relies<br />
heavily on a vast amount of accumulation of knowledge, in inter-disciplinary scientific<br />
research, engineering analysis, design documentation, operational data, maintenance<br />
records, regulatory reviews and countless other pieces of technical in<strong>for</strong>mation. This<br />
organizational knowledge combined with an immense and complex reservoir of people<br />
such as scientists, engineers and technicians of many disciplines having the requisite<br />
educational and technical background, expertise and acquired insight to apply that<br />
body of knowledge safely and effectively to further the cause of energy security and<br />
environmental perspective of India.<br />
The effective knowledge management process of fast reactor includes ensuring<br />
the continued availability of the above essential reservoir of knowledge, experience<br />
available in explicit, implicit and tacit <strong>for</strong>m from the qualified personnel that need to be<br />
developed and preserved. The critical issues of knowledge management on fast reactors<br />
are to ensure safety, security, and encouraging new innovation and also to ascertain<br />
harnessing benefits of nuclear energy remains available <strong>for</strong> future generation.<br />
* Scientific In<strong>for</strong>mation Resource Division, <strong>Indira</strong> <strong>Gandhi</strong> <strong>Centre</strong> <strong>for</strong> <strong>Atomic</strong> <strong>Research</strong>, Kalpakkam,<br />
Email: an@igcar.gov.in<br />
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We are striving to take the fast reactor knowledge to future generation <strong>for</strong> the<br />
following two emphasized resolutions:<br />
i) IAEA Convention on Nuclear Safety insists all the member states to “take the<br />
appropriate steps to ensure that sufficient numbers of qualified staff with<br />
appropriate education, training and retraining are available <strong>for</strong> all safety-related<br />
activities in or <strong>for</strong> each nuclear installation, throughout its life”.<br />
ii) General Conference Resolution (44)/RES/21 states: “the development and<br />
management of safe nuclear power, science and applications in those Member<br />
States which have chosen or will choose the nuclear option require the<br />
preservation of knowledge and experience and the maintenance of an adequate<br />
technologically and scientifically competent human resource potential in the<br />
nuclear sphere”,<br />
2. ASPECTS OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT<br />
Knowledge Management defines as an “integrated, systematic approach to identifying,<br />
acquiring, trans<strong>for</strong>ming, developing, disseminating, using, sharing and preserving<br />
knowledge, relevant to achieving specified objectives” [2]. Knowledge Management<br />
consists of three fundamental components: people, process and technology. Knowledge<br />
management focuses on :<br />
- people and organizational culture to stimulate and nurture the sharing and use<br />
of knowledge;<br />
- processes or methods to find, create, capture and share knowledge;<br />
- technology to store and make knowledge accessible and to allow people to<br />
work together without being together without any duplicity and repetition of<br />
work flow.<br />
Knowledge can broadly be categorized as explicit and tacit. Explicit knowledge<br />
includes technical in<strong>for</strong>mation gathered while carrying out R&D activities and further in<br />
the fields of ‘Applied Sciences’ and data that can be transferred easily to interested<br />
parties. However, documents never comprise experts’ knowledge fully, and a novice<br />
reading those instructions or in<strong>for</strong>mation might not end up with the same results as the<br />
expert. The tacit knowledge of the experts including scientists, engineers and<br />
technicians, is required over a long period and may never be fully articulated.<br />
Processes<br />
Technology<br />
People<br />
Fig.1<br />
Fundamental components of<br />
knowledge management<br />
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Knowledge Sharing Environment<br />
(1) By getting into an organisation’s CULTURE (values and behaviours) in<br />
otherwords identifying the ‘core-values’ of an organization [3]:<br />
i) making EXCELLENCE through Innovation, Learning continuously<br />
so as to expertise and Agility in adopting and moving fast with<br />
flexibility and decisiveness.<br />
ii) building TEAMWORK through Relationship, Respecting each other<br />
<strong>for</strong> their diverse cultures and Sharing knowledge, experience,<br />
resources and opportunities.<br />
iii) building LEADERSHIP with Courage, Vision and Integrity.<br />
(2) By Adopting PROCESS/STRUCTURES of an organization effectively<br />
and constantly changing its course <strong>for</strong> value addition. This knowledge on<br />
structural characteristics and procedures are shared.<br />
(3) Using appropriate TECHNOLOGY. Technology should be seen as a<br />
manifestation of culture, rather than as some kind of opposing <strong>for</strong>ce.<br />
3. FAST REACTOR DEVELOPMENT - GLOBAL SCENARIO<br />
Owing to two main reasons, viz. (i) emission of greenhouse gas effect to the<br />
atmosphere is very minimum, and (ii) cost of electricity generation through FBRs is very<br />
competitive, people’s acceptance to nuclear energy <strong>for</strong> electricity generation, especially<br />
on fast breeder reactors, is very much encouraging on high safety regulations and<br />
stringent licensing procedures followed on the development of fast reactors.<br />
Early 1960’s witnessed many countries undertaking important fast breeder reactor<br />
development programs. Constructions and successful operations of such reactors were<br />
undertaken in a number of countries, including Rapsodie (France), KNK-II (Germany),<br />
FBTR (India), Joyo (Japan), DFR (UK), BR-10 and BR-60 (Russia) and EBR-II, Fermi,<br />
FFTF (USA).<br />
Consequently commercial size prototypes like, Phenix, Superphenix (France),<br />
SNR-300 (Germany), MONJU (Japan), PFR(UK), BN-350 (Kazakhstan), BN-600<br />
(Russia), PFBR(India), are either just under construction coming on line, or experiencing<br />
long-term operation[4].<br />
4. INITIATIVES ON FAST REACTOR KNOWLEDGE PRESERVATION<br />
Fast reactor development programmes were at peak by 1980 when the countries<br />
started operating their demonstrative type fast reactors. And then they started commercial<br />
prototype reactors. From this time onwards, fast reactor development in general began to<br />
decline. By 1994 in the USA, the Clinch River Breeder Reactor (CRBR) had been<br />
cancelled and the two fast reactor test facilities, FFTF and EBR-II had been shutdown –<br />
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with EBR-II permanently and FFTF in a standby condition. Thus ef<strong>for</strong>t <strong>for</strong> fast reactor<br />
development essentially disappeared. Similarly, programmes in other nations were<br />
terminated or substantially reduced. In France, Superphenix was shutdown at the end of<br />
1998, SNR-300 in Germany was completed but not taken into operation, and KNK-II was<br />
permanently shutdown in 1991 (after 17 years of operation) and dismantled by 2004; in<br />
UK, PFR was shutdown I 1994, BN-350 in Kazakhstan was shutdown in 1998. Loss of<br />
the fast reactor knowledge should be taken seriously. The delay and economic impact of<br />
restoring the fast reactor option a few decades from now without the present knowledge<br />
would be enormous. By the time, all the facilities needed to generate the in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
originally, and the people who possessed the knowledge would be long gone.<br />
Realising all these impediments on the knowledge on fast reactors, International<br />
<strong>Atomic</strong> Energy Agency (IAEA) has started an initiative to coordinate and facilitate the<br />
various national FRKP (Fast Reactor Knowledge Preservation) ef<strong>for</strong>ts. The objective of<br />
the initiative is to develop a Knowledge Base into which existing Knowledge<br />
Preservation System will fit, and which will complement and integrate future Member<br />
States’ ef<strong>for</strong>ts to preserve Fast Reactor Data and Knowledge. Its outcome will be an<br />
International Knowledge Base, widely used through a WWW-portal established and<br />
maintained by the Agency. The initiative relies on both IAEA and Member States<br />
contributions. The Agency contributes its own data and knowledge accumulated over<br />
more than 35 years of activities per<strong>for</strong>med within the framework of the TWG-FR<br />
(<strong>for</strong>merly known as IWG-FR). It will further create a FRKP network among the<br />
interested Member States, and will support and coordinate FRKP activities in the<br />
Member States [5].<br />
a) Role of the Agency<br />
Development of appropriate structure, methodology and guidance <strong>for</strong> fast<br />
reactor data retrieval and knowledge preservation, and providing it to the<br />
interested Member States<br />
Establishing pilot projects <strong>for</strong> retrieving and preserving fast reactor data and<br />
knowledge in critical areas and <strong>for</strong> endangered installations<br />
Facilitating partnership with other international organizations<br />
Providing, within the TWG-FR, a <strong>for</strong>um <strong>for</strong> exchange of best practices<br />
Integrating available in<strong>for</strong>mation resources into a knowledge system.<br />
5. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT METHODS FOR TRANSFER AND<br />
PRESERVATION<br />
The safe, reliable and cost-effective operations of FBTR require that personnel<br />
possess and maintain the requisite knowledge, skills, and attitudes to do better job. This<br />
includes not only the technical competencies required by the nature of the technology and<br />
particular engineering designs, but also the “softer” competencies associated with the<br />
effective management, communication and teamwork. Traditional worker training<br />
programmes have addressed ‘explicit knowledge’ that is contained in written documents,<br />
policies and procedures. However, ‘tacit knowledge’ that is held in a person’s mind has<br />
not typically been either captured or transferred in any <strong>for</strong>mal manner. Rather, new<br />
workers have acquired such knowledge over time through their working with those who<br />
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already possess it. As those workers who are in possession of this ‘tacit knowledge’ leave<br />
the workplace <strong>for</strong> retirement, the effective capture and transfer of that in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
becomes even more critical. Although this need has always existed as individuals<br />
transferred to other jobs or left the organization, there have usually been others in the<br />
organization having tacit knowledge to provide continuity of operation. It is the increased<br />
rate of knowledgeable worker departures, along with the decreasing numbers of qualified<br />
replacements that has made this a more significant problem. The long-term operation of<br />
FBTR requires that this entire body of ‘explicit’ and ‘tacit’ knowledge be transferred to<br />
new personnel as they enter the work<strong>for</strong>ce. Accordingly, new and different techniques<br />
may be required to ensure timely and effective knowledge retention and transfer.<br />
Among the total in<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge available, much is not directly<br />
relevant to the accomplishment of a particular mission with respect to the plant. Hence,<br />
the identification of “mission-critical tacit knowledge” [6] necessitating to properly<br />
operate and maintain the fast reactor, must be determined and be made available to those<br />
who need it. This mission-critical tacit knowledge should encompass the total life cycle<br />
of the plant design, construction, operation, life cycle optimization, and eventual site<br />
closure. It also spans the spectrum of work activities including operations, maintenance,<br />
engineering, projects and support functions.<br />
The most common approach <strong>for</strong> transfer of tacit knowledge is through assigning<br />
experienced personnel to coach or mentor new employees. However, by virtue of<br />
experience, it has been found many limitations in such approach and the principal<br />
limitation among them is the potential <strong>for</strong> variability in the quality of transfer. Thus<br />
personal transfer should be supplemented, whenever feasible, by support systems like<br />
guidelines, job aids, individual development plans, structured on-the-job training (OJT)<br />
and communities of practice (CoPs) so that both personal style of transfer and support<br />
systems would provide consistency and high quality transfer of tacit knowledge.<br />
Knowledge Base Index by creating module <strong>for</strong> knowledge preservation<br />
In order to create a possible knowledge base index <strong>for</strong> understanding and taking<br />
follow-up action <strong>for</strong> future generation, contributions towards design, construction and<br />
operation of fast reactors are to be recorded appropriately [8]. The objective is to preserve<br />
the data and knowledge accumulated over the last 20 years and to ensure the long term<br />
availability of fast reactor experience in a comprehensive, durable and intelligible <strong>for</strong>m<br />
which would allow future designers to apply this vast amount of knowledge.<br />
It may be noted here that at present our centre is engaged in carrying out works on<br />
two planks viz. R&D activities on one side, and design of FBTR/PFBR along with related<br />
experiments on the other side. Again on the R&D plank, research oriented works related<br />
fast breeder reactor are undertaken vigorously and other allied research activities<br />
conducted in various laboratories housed at Kalpakkam. The results originated from such<br />
laboratorial activities are effectively used as input to the core activities in terms of<br />
improving the Scientific and Technological research innovations and system integration<br />
with respect to fast breeder reactor.<br />
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The knowledge base, on the idea depicted in the above paragraph, is structured<br />
along two complementary axes; the main one, through 21 R&D items, covers an overall<br />
vision of R&D works undertaken; the second one deals with the design of a fast reactor,<br />
in our case it may be FBTR/PFBR. The focus in this second axis is on the main systems<br />
of projected fast breeder reactor, i.e. reactor core system, monitoring systems, protection<br />
and shutdown systems, primary systems, secondary systems and steam generator, decayheat<br />
removal system, primary and secondary handling systems, cleaning and<br />
decontamination systems and fuel storage system. Accordingly, it is envisaged to have<br />
model <strong>for</strong> such a knowledge base as reproduced in fig.5.<br />
Fig.5 Fast reactor knowledge base structure<br />
6. PROCESS AND TOOLS FOR PREVENTING KNOWLEDGE FROM<br />
WALKING OUT OF THE DOOR<br />
The loss of valuable undocumented expertise has been identified as a major<br />
problem faced by organizations. Now let us progress <strong>for</strong> effective capturing of tacit<br />
knowledge by creating an innovative process and tools [9] <strong>for</strong> eliciting and capturing<br />
valuable undocumented knowledge.<br />
A process has to be developed, piloted and deployed to capture the undocumented<br />
knowledge of the employees nearing retirement, associated with tools and support enable<br />
the project team to:<br />
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- identify critical “at risk” knowledge and skills, especially that associated with<br />
the impending attrition<br />
- evaluate the risk associated with losing this critical knowledge and skills and<br />
focus on areas of greatest risk<br />
- develop, implement and evaluate actions (documentation, mentoring, training,<br />
re-engineering, sharing expertise, etc.) <strong>for</strong> managing this risk.<br />
Challenges<br />
Attrition, primarily in the <strong>for</strong>m of retirements may cause heavily over the next<br />
coming years. These experienced employees possess much unique undocumented<br />
knowledge. The challenge in retaining and transferring this critical knowledge is result<br />
oriented towards our future efficiency and effectiveness in the design, development,<br />
operation and maintenance and ultimately decommissioning of the FBR projects.<br />
This impending “Brain Drain” is especially relevant given nature of our nonmanagement<br />
employees are in positions requiring technical education, training, or both.<br />
Some highly specialized, technical employees have emerged over the years<br />
- employees whose knowledge is critical to the O&M of the plants and transmission<br />
facilities, and whose knowledge is adequately documented. Many of these<br />
employees literally built the plants and facilities which they now operate and<br />
maintain.<br />
Driving Forces/Factors<br />
Our success will depend upon developing and maintaining highly developed<br />
skilled work <strong>for</strong>ce. Knowledge retention provides a systematic approach to ensure that<br />
the critical knowledge of our employees transferred to the work <strong>for</strong>ce of the future.<br />
Further the attrition challenge is driven by several factors<br />
o There is intense competition because of knowledge shift to other fields<br />
like IT than Nuclear fields<br />
o Our ability to match a competitive environment is dependent on<br />
maintaining a highly skilled, knowledgeable, well trained, productive,<br />
motivated, diverse and high per<strong>for</strong>ming work <strong>for</strong>ce.<br />
o Much of our technical knowledge is undocumented i.e. tribal knowledge<br />
Response<br />
A simple process of “What”, “So-What”, “Now-What” ought to be <strong>for</strong>med and<br />
developed supported by various aids and tools the process allows the project team to<br />
answer three fundamental questions.<br />
i. specifically, what knowledge is being lost (What?)<br />
ii. what are the consequences of losing each item of knowledge (So-What?)<br />
iii. What can we do about each item (Now-What?)<br />
What?: the first step is designed to identify positions and/are people where the<br />
potential knowledge loss is greatest and most imminent depending upon time until<br />
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etirement and criticality of the position. That is the project team should be able to<br />
determine who is nearing retirement? And what unique knowledge skill do they have?.<br />
So-What?: this face of process focuses on narrowing the long list of knowledge<br />
items down to the critical few that truly require action. Again this screening is based on<br />
several guest ions:<br />
i. What is the relative importance of the knowledge?<br />
ii. What is relative immediacy of the knowledge loss?<br />
iii. What is the cost and feasibility of recovering this knowledge, if lost?<br />
iv. How difficult is it to transfer this knowledge?<br />
Now-What?: once the focus is on the knowledge and skills that are truly critical,<br />
specific plans are established to retain the knowledge/skill or lesson impact of losing it.<br />
In some cases it might mean assigning a new employee to shadow the retiring employee<br />
or cross training some one who is currently in the different job. Some times it means<br />
documenting a procedure or process that has never been written down. Perhaps person<br />
“X” is the only one left who knows how fix an ancient piece of equipment, it may take<br />
more sense to replace that equipment that to try to replace the arcane know-how of the<br />
person “X”. It is advisable <strong>for</strong> the project team to consider a host of possible responses.<br />
i. codification and documentation(procedures, checklists, inventories, etc)<br />
ii. engineer it out (change process, update equipment, use smart tools and<br />
technology, eliminate task, etc)<br />
iii. education & training (including class room, simulator, one-one<br />
coaching/mentoring, on-the-job-training, etc<br />
iv. establish alternative resources (outside contractors, retirees as consultants,<br />
find and buy hires, shared expertise with other plants or divisions,<br />
communities of practice-(CoP) or other professional networks, etc<br />
Finally, responding to the attrition challenge requires an ongoing monitoring and<br />
evaluation of knowledge retention plans. This attention institutionalizes the process and<br />
keeps the knowledge retention plans current. Attrition in<strong>for</strong>mation is updated annually in<br />
the Annual Planning Process, and new attrition dates added to existing knowledge<br />
retention in<strong>for</strong>mation to identify any new critical risk areas. Additionally areas identified<br />
that may require total or partial reassessment.<br />
Process Delivery: It is committed to the principle that the project team is<br />
responsible <strong>for</strong> managing their resources, including their people resources. The<br />
contribution of the human resources (HR) is to enable the project team to do this by<br />
providing process tools and consultation. The Knowledge Retention process illustrates<br />
some of these enabling futures:<br />
1. processes, tools, <strong>for</strong>ms, check-lists etc which are focused on meeting critical issues<br />
2. self service, intranet based systems which provides the project team access to the<br />
tools, firms etc,<br />
7. PRESENT ACTIVITIES AND SUGGESTIVE MEASURES ON KM<br />
Knowledge management in fast reactor technology is not a new area <strong>for</strong> Scientific<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation <strong>Research</strong> Division (SIRD) at IGCAR. Many activities like procurement of<br />
187
open literature, content and TOC creation <strong>for</strong> the library owned documents, like past<br />
conference proceedings, rare and grey reports and various Plan activities that are aimed at<br />
developing and sustaining the technical competence needed to apply nuclear technology<br />
and operate nuclear facilities in IGCAR. There has always been a visible and vigorous<br />
part of the SIRD’s programme focused on preserving, archiving and making available <strong>for</strong><br />
retrieval vast amount of scientific and technical data and documentation.<br />
Apart from archiving more than 1000 books on fast reactors, SIRD in IGCAR is<br />
gradually building an in<strong>for</strong>mation base with FBR related reports containing more the<br />
15000 in print, micro<strong>for</strong>m and digital <strong>for</strong>m. Our model <strong>for</strong> retrieving in<strong>for</strong>mation on fast<br />
reactors is based on indexing and abstracting and leading to full-text retrieval to some<br />
extent.<br />
SIRD activities are well positioned to serve as a hub <strong>for</strong> in<strong>for</strong>mation exchange<br />
and cooperation on matters related to science and technology of fast reactors. By<br />
providing better care and planning these facilities, it can very well be enhanced to<br />
become a knowledge preservation and management centre <strong>for</strong> nuclear technology with<br />
special reference to fast reactors. This facility is built on the existing databases of<br />
documents, while networking with other in<strong>for</strong>mation systems to provide enhanced<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation services and knowledge management systems. In this respect, a portal<br />
(Bodhi) is maintained in our Intranet site giving gateway in<strong>for</strong>mation on FBR,<br />
Reprocessing and Nuclear Fuels.<br />
In representing this kind of “relation of relations”, as an example, experiences on<br />
“KNK-II”, right from the R&D stages to decommissioning, are given as documentary<br />
evidence. We have accumulated them in a single place under one touch and given it <strong>for</strong><br />
the users. Anybody who wants to put this effective knowledge into their use in their own<br />
environment under similar circumstances may find and consider this sample of<br />
knowledge management is very much useful tool. Similarly we have a separate capsule<br />
<strong>for</strong> “Accelerated Driven System <strong>for</strong> Fast Reactors”.<br />
Suggestive Measures:<br />
Taking all these view in question and by virtue of experience gained through the<br />
activities put <strong>for</strong>th in the management of knowledge, we would like to suggest that a<br />
project knowledge preservation of fast breeder reactor becomes indispensable, especially<br />
<strong>for</strong>ming our main goal to give more the reasons of technical choices than to present basic<br />
explanations, in order to help future designers and builders of fast reactors. Apart from<br />
documentary evidences giving reasons of technical choices on each R&D items and<br />
FBTR systems, a database supporting each and every object of these documentary<br />
evidences will be created and made available rapid and easy accessible to in<strong>for</strong>mation.<br />
For ensuring and continuing effectively the knowledge management activities, we<br />
put <strong>for</strong>th the suggestion to <strong>for</strong>m ‘action groups’ consisting of experts and specialists from<br />
all the sections and divisions of this centre. Success of this knowledge base lies in the<br />
selection and availability of participating specialist and this can be achieved when there<br />
still existing teams working in the relative fields of knowledge base and when there is<br />
real motivation of the management. These groups must be aware of technical problems of<br />
the base concerned and the knowledge preservation aspects.<br />
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8. CONCLUSION<br />
This paper concludes that by utilizing the carry <strong>for</strong>ward KM, numerous benefits<br />
can be achieved, like <strong>for</strong> example, based on conceptual design drawings, identification of<br />
final design <strong>for</strong> fetching licensing or starting construction can be easy and smooth,<br />
accumulation of operating experiences <strong>for</strong> passing on to fresher, knowledge accumulated<br />
on equipment and material contaminated in a nuclear facility, will pave a successful path<br />
<strong>for</strong> ultimate decommissioning also.<br />
We also conclude that by highlighting the need <strong>for</strong> capturing explicit and tacit<br />
knowledge, an innovative ‘process and tools’ <strong>for</strong> elucidating and capturing valuable<br />
undocumented knowledge.<br />
9. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS<br />
The authors are gratefully acknowledging their sincere thanks to all the R&D<br />
officers and staff of SIRD <strong>for</strong> their valuable inputs support.<br />
10. REFERENCES<br />
1. “Managing Nuclear Knowledge: Strategies and Human Resource Development”,<br />
Summary of an international conference, 7-10 September 2004, Saclay.<br />
2. Knowledge management <strong>for</strong> nuclear industry operating organizations, International<br />
<strong>Atomic</strong> Energy Agency, International Nuclear In<strong>for</strong>mation System and Nuclear<br />
Knowledge Management Section, Vienna (Austria), IAEA-Tecdoc-1510.<br />
3. PAS 2001 - Knowledge Management: A guide to good practice, Dominic Kelleher and<br />
Simon Levene<br />
4. Technical meeting on decommissioning of fast reactors after sodium draining. Working<br />
material, International <strong>Atomic</strong> Energy Agency, Technical Working Group on Fast<br />
Reactors, Vienna (Austria), Technical meeting on decommissioning of fast reactors after<br />
sodium draining Cadarache (France) 26-30 Sep 2005, IAEA-TM-27329 (TWG-FR--128 )<br />
5. Consultancy on 'IAEA initiative to establish a fast reactor knowledge base'. Working<br />
material, International <strong>Atomic</strong> Energy Agency, Technical Working Group on Fast<br />
Reactors, Vienna (Austria) Consultancy on 'IAEA initiative to establish a fast reactor<br />
knowledge base' Vienna (Austria) 8-10 Dec 2004, TWG-FR—121.<br />
6. The nuclear power industry's ageing work<strong>for</strong>ce: Transfer of knowledge to the next<br />
generation, International <strong>Atomic</strong> Energy Agency, Vienna (Austria), IAEA-TECDOC—<br />
1399.<br />
7. Annual Report 2006, <strong>Indira</strong> <strong>Gandhi</strong> <strong>Centre</strong> <strong>for</strong> <strong>Atomic</strong> Energy, Kalpakkam.<br />
8. Technical meeting to 'Preserve fast reactor physics knowledge'. Working material,<br />
International <strong>Atomic</strong> Energy Agency, Technical Working Group on Fast Reactors,<br />
Vienna<br />
(Austria)<br />
Technical meeting to 'Preserve fast reactor physics knowledge' Daejon (Korea, Republic<br />
of) 12-16 May 2003, IAEA-TM—25809.<br />
9. The nuclear power industry's ageing work<strong>for</strong>ce: Transfer of knowledge to the next<br />
generation, International <strong>Atomic</strong> Energy Agency, Vienna (Austria), IAEA-TECDOC—<br />
1399, ANNEX H, p.79.<br />
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FROM MANAGEMENT OF ORGANIZATIONAL KNOWLEDGE<br />
TO MANAGEMENT OF ORGANIZATIONAL MEMORY<br />
K.K.Kuriakose*, H.Seetha*, S.A.V.Satya Murty*, S.Athinarayanan* and P.Swaminathan *<br />
Abstract<br />
Globalisation ubiquitous computing and knowledge centric view of the organization has brought<br />
knowledge management to the central stage in many organizations. Knowledge management enables<br />
organizational knowledge to grow flow and create more value in the organization. Knowledge Management is<br />
the process by which organization generates wealth from its knowledge based assets.<br />
Organizations which were initially concentrating on in<strong>for</strong>mation management, started moving to<br />
knowledge management then to organizational memory and organizational learning. Organizational memory is<br />
the combined repository of data, in<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge across the organizational boundaries captured in<br />
accessible repositories. These repositories consist of documents, computers, people and culture. Any<br />
progressive organization will be continuously acquiring, updating, storing and managing the memory <strong>for</strong><br />
making it available to all the relevant employees and improving the organizational effectiveness. Organizational<br />
learning uses organizational memory as its knowledge base. The effective utilization of organizational memory<br />
will result in organizational learning and improved organizational per<strong>for</strong>mance.<br />
This paper discusses the management of organizational memory and organizational learning and its<br />
relationship to in<strong>for</strong>mation management and knowledge management. It also discusses a conceptual frame<br />
work <strong>for</strong> management of organizational memory in a large <strong>Research</strong> and Development Organization.<br />
Key words: Knowledge Management, Organizational Memory, Organizational Per<strong>for</strong>mance<br />
INTRODUCTION<br />
Knowledge Management is a conscious strategy of getting the right knowledge to the<br />
right people at the right time, and helping people share and put knowledge into action <strong>for</strong><br />
improving the organizational per<strong>for</strong>mance. The key concept is ‘organizational per<strong>for</strong>mance’<br />
or ‘productivity improvement’. If the usage of computers <strong>for</strong> productivity improvement can<br />
be analyzed, it can be seen that the starting point was basic data processing systems. Data<br />
processing systems process transactions and produce reports. It represents the automation of<br />
fundamental, routine processing to support operations. For this purpose Electronic Data<br />
Processing(EDP) departments were set up in many organizations. The idea of using the<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation captured in transaction processing system <strong>for</strong> decision making gave birth to<br />
Decision Support Systems(DSS), Management In<strong>for</strong>mation Systems(MIS), Enterprise<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation Management (EIM) etc, though the contribution from data processing system is<br />
minimal . In a similar way is the idea of ‘Knowledge Management’ has evolved from<br />
‘In<strong>for</strong>mation Management’ ? There are contradicting views on this. In this paper we consider<br />
‘Knowledge Management’ as different from ‘In<strong>for</strong>mation Management’ and the only<br />
similarities are both aids in improving organizational productivity and both use ‘In<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
Technology’ like computers , networks etc.<br />
Organizational Memory(OM) can be defined as a set of repositories of data,<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge that the organization has acquired and retains over a period of<br />
time. Stein and Zwass (1995) define OM as the means where by knowledge from the past is<br />
brought to bear on present activities resulting on higher or lower levels of organizational<br />
* Electronics and Instrumentation Group, <strong>Indira</strong> <strong>Gandhi</strong> <strong>Centre</strong> <strong>for</strong> <strong>Atomic</strong> <strong>Research</strong><br />
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effectiveness. Walsh and Ungson (1991) define OM as stored in<strong>for</strong>mation from an<br />
organization’s history that can be thought to bear as the present decisions. The main goals of<br />
OM are to integrate in<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge across organizational boundaries, to assist<br />
current activities based on past experiences and to avoid repetition of past mistakes. Basic<br />
function of OM are perception , acquisition, abstraction, recording, storage, retrieval,<br />
interpretation and transmission of organizational knowledge (Stein and zwass 1995). Walsh<br />
and Ungson (1991) propose that organizational memory consist of five retention facilities:<br />
individuals, culture, trans<strong>for</strong>mation, structures and ecology.<br />
OM consists of unstructured and structured data, in<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge,<br />
unstructured concepts in<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge that exist in the organization’s culture and<br />
in the minds of the employees can be partially elicited and represented in electronic<br />
documents, audio, video recordings etc. Structured concepts, data, in<strong>for</strong>mation and<br />
knowledge that resides in various pockets of the organization can be completely captured and<br />
represent by electronic documents, databases etc.<br />
From the above discussions it is obvious that OM consists of data, in<strong>for</strong>mation &<br />
knowledge and knowledge management is a subset of organizational memory management.<br />
KNOWLEDGE<br />
Knowledge may be explicitly available in the <strong>for</strong>m of reports of activities, minutes of<br />
meetings, memoranda, proceedings of conferences, other documents or databases, audio and<br />
video recordings, multimedia presentations or implicitly as the experience, emotions, values,<br />
hunches and understanding of the people in the organization. Hence Knowledge can be<br />
classified in to ‘tacit’ and ‘explicit’. Tacit knowledge resides in the heads of people and<br />
explicit knowledge is available in paper, computer etc. Tacit knowledge is what the knower<br />
knows, which is derived from experience and embodies beliefs and values. According to<br />
Nonanka “explicit knowledge is the knowledge that is easily expressed, captured stored and<br />
reused. In contrast, tacit knowledge is highly personal and resides in the minds of people as<br />
the experience, emotions, values, hunches and understanding . It is hard to <strong>for</strong>malize and<br />
there<strong>for</strong>e difficult to communicate to others” (Nonanka, 1991). For Nonanka tacit and<br />
explicit knowledge are not separate but mutually complimentary entities. They interact with<br />
each other in the creative activities of human beings. Nonanka calls this as the knowledge<br />
conversion process. This conversion process consists of socialization, externalization,<br />
combination and internalization.<br />
Socialization transfers tacit knowledge between individuals through observation,<br />
discussion, demonstration etc. Externalization converts the tacit knowledge in to explicit<br />
knowledge in the <strong>for</strong>m of documents , video recordings etc. Combination re-configures<br />
explicit knowledge through adding, combining, modifying and categorizing. Combination<br />
also includes making available the explicit knowledge to others. Internalization translates<br />
explicit knowledge in to tacit knowledge by absorbing the explicit knowledge by individuals.<br />
However we use the term ‘explicit knowledge’ where the knowledge is already available<br />
explicitly in the <strong>for</strong>m of documents , audio/ video recordings etc in electronic or nonelectronic<br />
<strong>for</strong>m and the term ‘tacit knowledge’ where the knowledge still resides in the<br />
minds of people in the <strong>for</strong>m of experience, feelings, opinions, intuition etc. We feel that<br />
certain percentage of the tacit knowledge can be converted into explicit by suitable<br />
knowledge elicitation methods. In this paper the term ‘knowledge’ is used to refer the<br />
combined knowledge available both in explicit and tacit <strong>for</strong>m.<br />
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Organizational Knowledge<br />
Organizational Knowledge refers to the combined knowledge of all past and present<br />
employees of the organization. In this sense it may not be possible to capture the complete<br />
organizational knowledge into accessible repositories , because it involves tacit knowledge<br />
and it involves past employees. However we use the term ‘Organizational Knowledge’ to<br />
refer to the combined knowledge of all past and present employees of the organization<br />
which are captured into accessible repositories.<br />
Knowledge has often been considered as a resource, strategic asset, and most<br />
importantly a source of competitive advantage to organizations. Knowledge unlike other<br />
organizational resources like ‘men’, ‘money’, ‘machines’ and ‘materials’is difficult to<br />
imitate, and strategically difficult to substitute. For a firm to gain a competitive advantage it<br />
requires the capability to trans<strong>for</strong>m resources, and knowledge provide that ability. Hence in<br />
the absence of organizational knowledge, other resources cannot be utilized<br />
effectively.Davenport and Prusak (1998) view knowledge as an evolving combination of<br />
experiences, expert insights, values, contextual in<strong>for</strong>mation etc. that provides a frame work<br />
<strong>for</strong> evaluating and incorporating new experiences and in<strong>for</strong>mation. In other words,<br />
organizational knowledge facilitates creation of new knowledge. Nonaka (1991) states that<br />
knowledge is context specific and is about the “meaning”. This implies that <strong>for</strong> a knowledge<br />
repository to be useful, it must also store the context in which the knowledge was generated.<br />
The context specific nature of knowledge implies that ‘Knowledge’ as it is can not be applied<br />
universally but new knowledge applicable <strong>for</strong> the given context need to be generated from the<br />
available knowledge.<br />
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT<br />
In simple terms Knowledge Management refers to Management of ‘Knowledge’<br />
similar to Human Resource Management or Materials Management. When the ‘Knowledge’<br />
refers to ‘Personal Knowledge’ , it is “Personal Knowledge Management”; when it refers to<br />
the knowledge of an organization it is “Organizational Knowledge Management”; when it<br />
refers to the knowledge of a nation, it is “National Knowledge Management” and so on.<br />
However in general and in this paper the term “Knowledge Management” refers to<br />
“Organizational Knowledge Management”. Knowledge management is a broad subject with<br />
many facets. The process and terminology associated with knowledge management appears<br />
abstract. Based on the review of the literatures presented by many academics and<br />
practitioners, it can be concluded that there is not yet a common consensus on the definition<br />
and the concept of knowledge management (Earl, 1999). Defining knowledge management<br />
is akin to the old fable of the blind men and the elephant where each person touches different<br />
part of the elephant’s body and arrives at their perception of what the elephant looks like and<br />
really is (Bonanno, 2003).<br />
In a broad sense there are two schools of knowledge management; one centered<br />
around explicit knowledge and another one centered around people and tacit knowledge. For<br />
the first group knowledge management deals with collecting and codifying the knowledge<br />
available in different pockets of the organization and making it available to all the relevant<br />
employees of the organization. One of the definitions appropriate <strong>for</strong> this group is<br />
“knowledge management is the process of capturing a company’s collective expertise<br />
wherever it resides in databases or paper or in peoples heads and distributing it to wherever it<br />
can help to produce the biggest pay off” (Hibbard,1997). The researchers and practitioners in<br />
this field have their education in in<strong>for</strong>mation technology and in<strong>for</strong>mation science. For this<br />
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group knowledge is a tangible object which can be identified and handled in in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
systems.<br />
For the second group, knowledge management is synonymous with people<br />
management, adding a new dimension to traditional human resource management, because<br />
they believe that knowledge resides only in the minds of people and what is available<br />
explicitly is only in<strong>for</strong>mation. The researchers in this field have their education in business<br />
management, philosophy, psychology, sociology etc. They are primarily involved in<br />
assessing and improving human skills and behaviour. For them, knowledge is a process, a<br />
complex set of dynamic skills, know how etc., which is constantly changing. Knowledge is<br />
the capacity to act and it is synonymous with individual competence (Sveiby, 2001). Based<br />
on this, we can define “knowledge management as the one which creates and nurtures the<br />
organizational environment where knowledge sharing, creation and growth takes place in the<br />
organization as an integral process in every role, on a continuous basis ,thereby improving<br />
the dynamic capacity of the employees to act effectively in various situations”.<br />
Knowledge management initiatives can be classified in to two main types. This<br />
classification is based on the way knowledge is shared. One method is ‘indirect’ by<br />
converting the tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge and shared. It is by the process of<br />
exernalisation , combination and internalization . This method is also called the codification<br />
approach where the strategy is people to document and document to people. The other<br />
method is ‘direct’ where tacit knowledge is shared among people where the strategy is people<br />
to people. This method is also called personalization approach. A holistic approach to<br />
knowledge management should address both direct and indirect methods.<br />
ORGANIZATIONAL MEMORY<br />
Organizational Memory is the body of data, in<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge relevant to<br />
an individual organization’s existence. It has two repositories – an organization's record of<br />
activities/products , including its electronic data bases, and individuals’ memories. The<br />
composition of OM includes prior data and in<strong>for</strong>mation, all internally-generated<br />
documentation related to the organizational activities such as intellectual property, details of<br />
events, products and individuals, relevant published reference material and – importantly –<br />
institution-created knowledge. OM can be visualized as the data, in<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge<br />
captured by an organization in accessible repositories. These repositories consist of<br />
documents, audio, video, people, culture and computers. The effective use of captured data,<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge results in ‘learning’ by individuals and organization. The<br />
effective use is possible only if it can be accessed when required, necessitating effective<br />
retrieval systems. It is generally expected that learning will improve organizational<br />
effectiveness. But, it is also possible that organizations can learn incorrect behaviours. In<br />
order to avoid such a pitfall, the contents of OM, its usage and the resultant per<strong>for</strong>mance need<br />
to be continuously monitored. The basic components of Organizational Memory<br />
System(OMS) are capturing, storing, searching, retrieving, using and assessing. In other<br />
words OM is a subset of OMS. However we use the terms OM and OMS interchangeably.<br />
The simplified representation of an OM is shwn in figure 1. The central repository consists of<br />
data, in<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge created and used by various organizational entities. The<br />
organizational entities can be individual employees, team, sections, task <strong>for</strong>ce, departments<br />
etc.<br />
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Central Repository<br />
Data + In<strong>for</strong>mation + Knowledge<br />
Entity ‘A’ Entity ‘B’ Entity ‘N’<br />
Fig-1 Organizational Memory<br />
Organizational Learning<br />
Organisational Learning characterises how organisations learn from their<br />
own and others' experiences. It is also known as Experiential Learning.<br />
When it comes to experiential learning, an awareness of both the explicit and tacit<br />
components of OM on their own is not generally enough to create new knowledge efficiently.<br />
As a general rule it needs to be accompanied by a focussed learning phase. Most models of<br />
experiential learning are cyclical and have three basic phases: They are awareness of an<br />
experience or problem situation, a reflective phase within which the learner examines the<br />
OM around the experience and draws bookish learning from that reflection, and a testing<br />
phase within which the new insights or learnings, having been integrated with the learner's<br />
own conceptual framework, and applied to a new problem situation or experience.The<br />
concept’s starting point is that individuals or organizations seldom learn from experience<br />
unless the experience is assessed and then assigned its own meaning in terms of individual<br />
and/or the organization’s own goals, aims, ambitions and expectations. From these processes<br />
come the insights and added meaning, which is then applied to new circumstances. The end<br />
product is better decision-making.<br />
Knowledge Management, which is the process of collecting and disseminating<br />
know-how and experiences within an organization, enables the process of<br />
Organisational Learning, or Experiential Learning, to take place. Malhotra (1996) defines<br />
organizational learning (OL) as the process of detection and correction of errors.<br />
Organizations learns through individuals acting as agents <strong>for</strong> them. Individual learning<br />
activities by organizational factors which can be called an organizational learning system.<br />
Organizational learning is the process whereby an organization assimilates experiences of its<br />
members and uses that experience to modify the organizations potential actions. During<br />
work employees gain experience, observe and reflect in making sense out of what they are<br />
doing. They analyze these experiences and general abstractions are arrived. They <strong>for</strong>mulate<br />
perceptions on better methods of doing work. As these employees influence the co-workers<br />
the “organization learns and the work culture is gradually changed”. OM is necessary to<br />
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facilitate the processing and retention of in<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge needed <strong>for</strong> learning to<br />
take place. Organizational learning uses OM as its knowledge base.<br />
Functions of OM<br />
The function of OM is to store the captured data, in<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge<br />
applicable to the organization in accessible repositories. OM is created as a result of<br />
individual and organizational activities and learning. Capturing the experience involves<br />
capturing the structured explicit knowledge and the unstructured tacit knowledge. Capturing<br />
the structured explicit knowledge is relatively easy. It can be captured from documents,<br />
reports, publications, work procedures, data processing systems, In<strong>for</strong>mation Management<br />
Systems etc.<br />
Capturing the unstructured, abstract, tacit knowledge though difficult is important <strong>for</strong><br />
the OM. For this individuals act as the agents of capturing the knowledge as they synthesize<br />
it in to their own internal knowledge base and apply to actions such as changing procedures<br />
and work processes. The context and reasoning of such changes can be captured and stored<br />
in OM. In addition to this limited capture of tacit knowledge, individuals themselves are the<br />
main source of tacit knowledge. As the data, in<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge stored in OM are<br />
applied over time, the organizational culture changes to reflect its use. Cultural change of<br />
organization takes time, because organizational members need to reach a consensus that the<br />
anticipated changes in organizational actions, norms and values are appropriate, acceptable<br />
and beneficial to the organization. Consensus making is time consuming.<br />
Management of OMS<br />
The management of OMS consists of planning, identifying, capturing, quality<br />
controlling, storing, searching, retrieving, and using the data, in<strong>for</strong>mation & knowledge<br />
relevant to the organization. Monitoring the benefits to the individuals and to the whole<br />
organization is also a part of the management of OMS. It is possible to automate the capture<br />
of certain data, in<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge in to the organizational memory. However, it is<br />
also necessary to capture the relevant knowledge manually, codify and store in the OM. The<br />
usage and benefit of OMS should be monitored. The OMS subsystems which are effective<br />
in improving the organizational per<strong>for</strong>mance should be maintained and expanded and others<br />
which are not effective should be analysed and made effective or dropped.<br />
Approaches to build OMS<br />
There are two approaches to building an OMS. They are process based approach and<br />
infrastructure based approach. The process based approach focuses on the area of OM by<br />
participants in a process, task or project in order to improve their effectiveness. This<br />
approach identifies the data, in<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge needs of the process and its users,<br />
capture them and store in OM. It has well defined users and hence it is user centric. The<br />
infrastructure based approach focuses on building a base system to capture, store and<br />
distribute OM <strong>for</strong> use throughout the organization. It is more concerned with the technical<br />
details associated with identification, storage, search, retrieval and use of OM. The approach<br />
focuses on network capacity, database, in<strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge classification etc. The<br />
approach is technology centric and takes longer time <strong>for</strong> visible success. Combination of both<br />
approaches need to be used to create organization wide OM. Since, the process based<br />
approach supports specific process and projects and identified users and knowledge<br />
requirements.<br />
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The infrastructure based approach integrates all OM in to a single system and hence<br />
provides higher benefits, since it is spread across the entire organization rather than a few<br />
process. The process based approach is more suitable <strong>for</strong> small organizations with well<br />
defined OM goals. The infrastructure approach is preferred <strong>for</strong> large organizations, where the<br />
OM needs are not known, but the organization knows that OM is necessary.<br />
Studies of different OM implementations (Ackerman, 1994) reveals that, the success<br />
rate of process based OM is high compared to infrastructure based organization wide OM.<br />
Hence, it is suggested that even in infrastructure based organization wide OM, it is preferable<br />
to break OM into manageable pieces, that correspond to specific process, task, project or<br />
department and integration of these smaller pieces to <strong>for</strong>m the overall OM. This hybrid<br />
approach of having an overall plan of infrastructure based OM, identifying the components as<br />
process based OM and finally integrating to <strong>for</strong>m the complete organization wide OM has the<br />
dual benefits of infrastructure based approach and process based approach.<br />
Design of OMS<br />
The basic components of OMS are capturing, storing, searching, retrieving, using and<br />
assessing OM. The issues affecting the design of OMS are perspective of OM from different<br />
organizational groups, in<strong>for</strong>mation overload, quality control and security of OM, capturing<br />
mechanism , storing, retrieval, usage and integration of memory components. OM<br />
repositories need to be designed to accommodate different types of data like meta data,<br />
structured data, semi structured data and unstructured data. Organization and representation<br />
of memory and the user interfaces are the keys to success of OMS. Effective memory maps<br />
need to be designed based on the user requirements. Capture of certain memory can be done<br />
automatically from transaction processing system. However it is also required to capture<br />
manually by designated personnel. Thecontent in OM ages with time and need to be purged<br />
when it is no longer required. Methods <strong>for</strong> identifying and purging outdated memory, like<br />
validity period and automatic/ administrator controlled purging after the validity period etc.<br />
need to be evolved. Design of OMS should also consider the technology infrastructure like<br />
network, servers, storage, back up devices etc. A typical OMS applicable <strong>for</strong> a large <strong>Research</strong><br />
and Development Organization is depicted in figure 2.<br />
Projects HR Finance<br />
Procurement & Materials<br />
Management<br />
Scientific Data<br />
Warehouse<br />
Quality Control & Security<br />
Mapping<br />
Digital Library<br />
Per<strong>for</strong>mance<br />
Department<br />
Department Department n<br />
Purging<br />
Users &<br />
Figure-2 Organizational Memory System<br />
196
The organization has various transaction processing systems like Human Resource<br />
Management System, Finance, Projects, Procurement and Materials Management etc. The<br />
relevant data and in<strong>for</strong>mation from these systems can be captured in to the OM through<br />
proper quality control and filtering mechanism. Similarly the relevant data from Scientific<br />
Data Warehouse and Digital Library can be brought into the OM. Also in<strong>for</strong>mation and<br />
knowledge available in various Departments need to be consciously captured into the OM.<br />
The per<strong>for</strong>mance of OM can be monitored through user feed back and per<strong>for</strong>mance<br />
measurement methods. The mechanism of purging like validity period, ‘no usage’ etc. can be<br />
used.<br />
Effectiveness Organizational Memory Systems<br />
When an Organization has implemented OMS, the effectiveness need to be measured<br />
and the design of OMS should include appropriate methods to measure it. However, it is<br />
also necessary to predict the effectiveness by appropriate methods even be<strong>for</strong>e the<br />
implementation. Organizational effectiveness can be described using the competing values<br />
model (Stein and Zwass, 1995, Quinn and Rhorbaugh, 1983). This model assumes that<br />
organizational effectiveness is related to OMS. It uses four organizational effectiveness<br />
criteria: integration, adaptation, goal attainment and pattern maintenance. The integration<br />
function is the technology capability <strong>for</strong> providing access to the OM which may be<br />
distributed across the entire organization in space and time. The adaptive function is the<br />
ability of the organization to adapt to the changes in the organization. The goal attainment<br />
function is the ability of the organization to set goals and evaluate the degree of their<br />
fulfillment. The pattern maintenance function is the ability of the organization to maintain the<br />
cohesion and the morale of the human resource.<br />
The competing values model, though predicts the effectiveness of OMS, through the<br />
organizational effectiveness variables, it does not predict the usage of OMS. The generalized<br />
assessment of OMS success can be predicted by adapting the In<strong>for</strong>mation System Success<br />
Model which (Jennex Adolfman, 2002, Delone and McLean’s 1992) depicted in Figure 2.<br />
System Quality<br />
Use<br />
Individual<br />
Impact<br />
Organizational<br />
Impact<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation Quality<br />
User<br />
Satisfaction<br />
Figure 3. IS Success Model<br />
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The ‘System Quality’ refers to the technological characteristics of the OMS. This<br />
includes the capability of the organization to develop and maintain OMS in terms of quality<br />
human resource(developers and users) and advanced hardware & software. It also includes<br />
the level of integration : how much of the accessible memory is online and available through<br />
a single interface. In addition it includes the quality of search and retrieval functions.<br />
The ‘In<strong>for</strong>mation Quality’ defines the quality of the memory content in terms of its<br />
richness, the linkages and to the extent to which it meets the needs of the users on a long<br />
terms basis.<br />
The ‘use’ refers to the utilization of the outputs of the system and can be used to<br />
measure the success of the system when the usage of the system is voluntary. ‘User<br />
satisfaction’ measures the users’ perception of the system. Use and user satisfaction will<br />
influence each other. The usage of OMS by an individual will produce an impact on his / her<br />
per<strong>for</strong>mance in the work place. Each individual impact will in turn have an impact on the<br />
per<strong>for</strong>mance of the Organization, though it may not be a simple addition.<br />
Managing Organizations Memory<br />
It is usually perceived that an organization will benefit from using OM. However, it<br />
does not happen always. The Organizational benefit depends on the context in which OM is<br />
used. For example, if in a situation where a non routine response was required, the usage of<br />
OM resulted in a routine decision, organizational per<strong>for</strong>mance deteriorates. Hence, effective<br />
management of OM is necessary <strong>for</strong> improved organizational per<strong>for</strong>mance. Also<br />
management actions are required <strong>for</strong> creation and implementation of OM Policies,<br />
Procedures and Standards, ensure adequate resources to develop and maintain OM,<br />
monitoring the usage of OM and ensure its effectiveness, adequate training to users ,<br />
encourage the OM usage and orient the organizational culture to facilitate the effective<br />
growth and usage of OM. The growth and usage of OM is tightly linked to the organizational<br />
culture that promotes sharing between organizational members. Sharing culture can be<br />
promoted through management support and by reward system used by the organization to<br />
assess individual per<strong>for</strong>mance. Changing Organizational culture is time consuming and the<br />
management need to make available the time and other resources required <strong>for</strong> this change<br />
management.<br />
CONCLUSION<br />
Organizational knowledge is the combined knowledge of all employees both in<br />
explicit and tacit <strong>for</strong>m. Organizational Memory is the repository of data, in<strong>for</strong>mation and<br />
knowledge about the past events & activities in an organization and that possessed by<br />
various organizational entities. It is applied to decision making regarding future events &<br />
activities. OMS are systems built to support the capture and application of OM. In general, it<br />
is perceived that application of OM will result in improved organizational per<strong>for</strong>mance.<br />
However, it is not ensured unless the management of OMS are effective. Management of<br />
OMS need to have strategy to identify the content and application of OM. It is also required<br />
to monitor the usage of OM and its impact on Organization’s per<strong>for</strong>mance.<br />
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KNOWLEDGE: A MARKETABLE COMMODITY<br />
A. Chitra Dhavaputhalvi * , and Dr. S. Ally Sornam **<br />
Abstract<br />
Current e-learning competition in higher education requires comprehensive planning that allows<br />
<strong>for</strong> flexibility and opportunities to generate revenue as well as make a profit. This means that e-learning<br />
should be viewed as a business opportunity and venture, not just as an exercise in pedagogy. In this<br />
respect, e-learning becomes the e-commerce extension of an existing academic model.<br />
Pedagogy should be re-evaluated in the context of “knowledge as commodity,”<br />
in which case e-learning can be considered as the integration of pedagogy. Programs that are<br />
pedagogically sound but not fiscally sound may not be endorsed by the administration because of financial<br />
strain to the organization. Conversely, programs that are fiscally sound but not pedagogically sound will<br />
not be endorsed by the faculty whom it represents. The idea approach is to develop or maintain programs<br />
that are pedagogically and fiscally sound.<br />
INTRODUCTION<br />
When an economist, economics professor, or economics textbook talks<br />
about a commodity, they mean a good that possesses the following properties:<br />
• usually produced and/or sold by many different companies<br />
• Is uni<strong>for</strong>m in quality between companies that produce/sell it. You cannot tell the<br />
difference between one firm's product and another.<br />
Commodities are usually sold <strong>for</strong> their marginal cost of production, though in<br />
the real world the price is often higher. E-Knowledge is differing from traditional<br />
business models in a variety of ways. For example, a traditional model tends to be based<br />
upon stability, predictability, long-range planning, <strong>for</strong>mal alliances, and an aversion to<br />
failure.<br />
Commercialization of education refers to a situation in which education, as an<br />
undertaking, becomes so profitable that it starts attracting entrepreneurs who are only<br />
interested in earnings, having no commitments to uphold the ideals of education.<br />
In the context of globalization, education / knowledge becomes a commodity<br />
subject to trade across different countries. It involves attracting talented students from<br />
developing countries by the advanced and affluent developed countries, both with the<br />
intension of earnings as well as making use of potential talent in students who find<br />
limited avenues in their own country.<br />
KNOWLEDGE; A MARKETABLE COMMODITY<br />
The question that comes to one’s mind is why we are now talking of<br />
marketing of education. How and why has knowledge come to be treated as a marketable<br />
* Kongu Engineering College, Perundurai<br />
** Head, PG DLIS, Bishop Heber College, Trichy<br />
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commodity? There are certain factors responsible <strong>for</strong> this development. These are<br />
discussed at some length below.<br />
WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE?<br />
Knowledge is a term, which is used widely and indiscriminately. Widely because<br />
everybody is concerned with it; and indiscriminately as there is no definite universal<br />
meaning <strong>for</strong> that. It ranges from simple in<strong>for</strong>mation to absolute mastery over any field of<br />
study or original contribution to theory of knowledge. On the whole, knowledge is a term<br />
used with varied meanings depending on different contexts. “In Plato’s view knowledge<br />
is merely an awareness of absolute, universal ideas or <strong>for</strong>ms, existing independent of any<br />
subject trying to apprehend them.<br />
WHAT IS COMMODITY?<br />
The word commodity is a term with distinct meanings in business. Good or a<br />
service that is exchanged <strong>for</strong> money. Obviously, it is a product, Goods, Service and<br />
article of trade.<br />
MODES OF MARKETING<br />
There are four different modes of supplying transnational (or cross-border) higher<br />
education. The traditional mode is that in which the students moves from his country to<br />
another country <strong>for</strong> pursuit of education. The second mode is cross-border supply, when<br />
institutions of a member country provide distance course to another member such as<br />
through distance education or the Internet. The third mode- commercial presence, takes<br />
place when the supplier of education provides courses through branches or franchise in<br />
another member country through its colleges and institutions of higher education. The<br />
fourth is movement of natural persons, that is, when teachers of a member country move<br />
to teach in another member country.<br />
MARKETING STRATEGIES<br />
Education, having acquired the status of a commodity subject to sale in the<br />
market, has rendered it necessary <strong>for</strong> its suppliers to market their product. At the<br />
international level it has become an important <strong>for</strong>eign exchange earner <strong>for</strong> the leading<br />
exporters of education, viz., USA, UK, Australia, Canada etc. the policies pursued and<br />
the strategies adopted have focused on<br />
i) Creating awareness about their educational programmes<br />
ii) Creating a conductive environment <strong>for</strong> <strong>for</strong>eign students.<br />
iii) Offering courses tailored to the needs of students.<br />
iv) Offering scholarships and job opportunities to attract students.<br />
Business to business (B2B) models involves the sale or exchange between two<br />
business entities. Business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions are those in which the actual<br />
customer is the end user.<br />
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APPLYING E-COMMERCE TO E-LEARNING<br />
E-commerce presents an opportunity to programs offering e-learning to<br />
access a variety of potential audiences of learners. Additionally,<br />
e-commerce<br />
also is about developing an online presence, but also about improving the efficiency of<br />
any operation, which in this case can relate to optimizing the use of digitally developed<br />
materials. This can be discerned in the types of e-commerce relationships developed<br />
(B2B or B2C) as well as using the Internet to attract or retain learners.<br />
A BUSINESS TO CONSUMER EXAMPLE<br />
A B2C application relates “knowledge as marketable commodity”<br />
directly to the end user—in this case the learners. Consider the example of an online<br />
program <strong>for</strong> registered and practicing pharmacists that enable them to upgrade their skills<br />
and degree.<br />
This is a direct marketing of education to any pharmacist who is qualified<br />
and interested in pursuing the degree. In addition, this can be marketed in a variety of<br />
<strong>for</strong>ms of offerings to attract the maximum number of users. Since the B2C model applies<br />
directly to learners, it requires interactions with a variety of educational ancillary services<br />
such as registrar, admissions, financial aid, library, and accreditation issues that are<br />
associated with the provision of education and the possible awarding of a degree. Finally,<br />
as would be expected in a B2C scenario, the financial model is based upon tuition and<br />
expenditure, so it is imperative to capitalize upon the various opportunities that present<br />
themselves when offering materials online.<br />
A BUSINESS TO BUSINESS EXAMPLE<br />
Now, take the same non-traditional pharmacy program and apply a business-tobusiness<br />
(B2B) model. Now a distinctly different audience appears. The non-traditional<br />
pharmacy program is sold either in its entirety or piecemeal to another college or<br />
university that brokers the content to a third party. This type of “knowledge as<br />
marketable commodity” arrangement is becoming more common.<br />
Depending on what is sold, the contractual arrangement can be structured to allow<br />
<strong>for</strong> either a lump-sum purchase of the content or a revenue-sharing arrangement where<br />
each party gets a set percentage of the tuition generated. The second revenue model<br />
allows <strong>for</strong> continuous income over the life of the contract and control over the content<br />
sold, which has significant advantages.<br />
In this B2B model, the seller is no longer in the position of dealing with registrar<br />
issues, admissions, financial aid, library services, and, to some extent, accreditation.<br />
There are other issues, however.<br />
For example, with respect to copyright clearance it is no longer a question of fairuse,<br />
but the knowledgeable sale of educational content containing copyrighted materials.<br />
Another concern is intellectual property and ownership. The university selling the<br />
courses <strong>for</strong> distribution may need to compensate or ensure that course ownership has<br />
been resolved be<strong>for</strong>e this occurs. Finally, a purchasing school may need to ensure that the<br />
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faculty is com<strong>for</strong>table with the courses purchased and that these courses meet the<br />
accreditation standards <strong>for</strong> that institution, albeit specialized or regional.<br />
The final example is a combination of the previous two. Digitally developed<br />
materials can easily be re-purposed <strong>for</strong> a variety of uses and audiences, in which case it is<br />
possible to use the same product <strong>for</strong> both B2B and B2C uses.<br />
In this case, consider a course developed to teach research methods in a health<br />
profession program. In addition to its intended or planned audience, it is possible to look<br />
at a variety of health profession students (pharmacy, nursing, physical therapy, etc.)<br />
directly (B2C) as well as to health profession programs that requires a research methods<br />
course <strong>for</strong> use with their students (B2B).<br />
This means developing a good, highly functional Web page with online<br />
demonstrations of lectures, access to notes, slides, audio, and possibly a video clip so<br />
potential students can get an example of the content.<br />
In each instance the key is to develop a Web presence that attracts new users or<br />
gives current users a reason to come back. It is not necessary to provide an entire lecture<br />
<strong>for</strong> viewing, but at least provide enough to allow the individual to feel like an in<strong>for</strong>med<br />
consumer. The product of knowledge is so well protected behind fire walls and<br />
passwords that the potential user has no idea what to expect.<br />
CONCLUSION<br />
As programs of higher education seek new ways to increase visibility and<br />
the competitive advantage within a changing marketplace, the integration of e-<br />
commerce business models will become more prevalent. It is imperative that<br />
universities provide themselves with the best possible chance <strong>for</strong> success, which may<br />
mean integrating the Internet to become a “brick and click.” This is not to say that<br />
the old ways of higher education should be abandoned or changed; only that new ways of<br />
providing knowledge and education are worth considering.<br />
There has been a lot of discussion regarding the commercialization of higher<br />
education. Applying e-commerce principles to e-learning is not about commercializing<br />
education, but instead increasing access to more potential learners. Now more than ever<br />
students are becoming consumers and e-learning is a competitive marketplace. The<br />
appropriate integration of e-commerce into higher education can benefit all involved if<br />
done well.<br />
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Role of Libraries in the Knowledge Commodity World<br />
K V Satyanarayana*, Sheetal Tare *<br />
Abstract<br />
Libraries have been dealing with in<strong>for</strong>mation technology <strong>for</strong> nearly four decades and it has<br />
touched every aspect of library services, <strong>for</strong> example; circulation, reference, cataloging and so on. With the<br />
evolution of the Internet, the change is happening at a very rapid pace. Usages of online services have<br />
reached a frenetic pace. In<strong>for</strong>mation that was earlier available through books, journals in libraries or<br />
high-cost databases is now available on the Web, sometimes free of cost. This has led to commoditization of<br />
knowledge with in<strong>for</strong>mation available anywhere, anytime and barriers to access of knowledge have started<br />
disappearing. A small percentage of in<strong>for</strong>mation is freely available on the Web while there is still a vast<br />
pool of in<strong>for</strong>mation available with a price and the options <strong>for</strong> end-users have increased manifold. Indeed,<br />
users seem to be com<strong>for</strong>table searching the Web by using Google and other search engines, rather than<br />
visiting the library. This has created a paradigm shift <strong>for</strong> libraries. Libraries are now focusing on adding<br />
value by 1) Suggesting sources to users and providing remote access to library sources, 2) Providing<br />
assistance through evaluating authenticity, 3) Enhancing the quality of content <strong>for</strong> users and 4) Provide<br />
domain specific in<strong>for</strong>mation services.<br />
1. INTRODUCTION<br />
Today, knowledge is primary resource in organizations and society is moving<br />
from being in<strong>for</strong>mation society to knowledge society. Organizations are practicing and<br />
implementing knowledge management techniques and technologies to improve their<br />
efficiency, effectiveness and stay in the competition. Knowledge is becoming<br />
commoditized in this globalized world and rapid growth of technology is intensifying<br />
such attempts. Knowledge has not been produced in any factory, but it taken different<br />
shapes, packaged, distributed, sold, shared, and used. The resulting learning is again<br />
reapplied to create new knowledge and leading to new knowledge commodity. Indeed,<br />
knowledge became externalized from knower and its utility is linked with its perceived<br />
value to customers. Rapid advances in technology are further reducing the barriers to<br />
direct access to in<strong>for</strong>mation/knowledge in corporate and academic library settings. Thus<br />
libraries are <strong>for</strong>ced to adopt business models to survive and continuously add value to<br />
customer services.<br />
2. COMMODITIZATION OF INFORMATION/KNOWLEDGE<br />
Be<strong>for</strong>e the arrival of World Wide Web, access to in<strong>for</strong>mation was predominantly<br />
though books. Journals, CD-ROMs and some time through paid online databases. These<br />
resources generally used to exist in Libraries and users are restricted by lack of multiple<br />
copies, reference collection and/or high cost of these sources. With internet growth,<br />
access to in<strong>for</strong>mation has changed and many such collections are now available on the<br />
web in the electronic <strong>for</strong>mat. Now in<strong>for</strong>mation is available both in structured and nonstructured<br />
<strong>for</strong>mat on the web. Not only publishers, professional organization but<br />
* Tata Consultancy Services. (Pune), k.satyanarayana, sheetal.tare @tcs.com,<br />
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Individuals, institutions, corporate houses are publishing in<strong>for</strong>mation on Internet. Wide<br />
variety of in<strong>for</strong>mation sources are now available on the web which includes journals,<br />
magazines, news papers, books, library catalogues, dictionaries, maps, technical reports,<br />
encyclopedias, patents, websites of companies, organizations, governments and so on.<br />
Technology also made possible to provide access to these services remotely.<br />
In<strong>for</strong>mation and / or knowledge taken in electronic <strong>for</strong>mat can be made available<br />
to multiple users simultaneously, sometime even without any cost implications.<br />
Knowledge available in patents, is now easily accessible to researchers having access to<br />
internet. Several patent offices are providing free access to full-text of patent on their<br />
websites. Encyclopedias, resources once usually found in libraries only are now easily<br />
available on the web. Users are unlikely to consult libraries <strong>for</strong> referring to these<br />
materials.<br />
Apart from the availability of electronic in<strong>for</strong>mation, there are few developments<br />
that lead to rise of commoditization of knowledge. They are given below:<br />
Government/International Organization in<strong>for</strong>mation sources: Many<br />
government and international agencies made their in<strong>for</strong>mation available <strong>for</strong> free on the<br />
web. World Bank Group makes it Project appraisal reports, Economic and Sector Works,<br />
and studies and working papers available on their website. US government websites<br />
provide statistics and research reports on their websites.<br />
Growth of Search engines into in<strong>for</strong>mation provision: Once where users<br />
depended on libraries <strong>for</strong> news, financial or stock market in<strong>for</strong>mation, now they can<br />
easily get access through finance pages of Google, Yahoo, MSN and several other<br />
websites. Sometimes, these pages provide free access to limited market research and<br />
company analyst in<strong>for</strong>mation. News can be accessed through news pages or RSS feeds.<br />
Publisher subscription policies: Some societies have made available access to<br />
their content to individuals at lower price thus providing convenient access to<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation. Few publishers or in<strong>for</strong>mation providers provide some in<strong>for</strong>mation freely to<br />
users. IEEE Digital Library subscription <strong>for</strong> members is available <strong>for</strong> USD 35 per month.<br />
Hoovers website provides basic company in<strong>for</strong>mation freely and detailed in<strong>for</strong>mation on<br />
subscription basis. Gartner provides some content freely on their website.<br />
Credit card and electronic payments: Several publishers, aggregators,<br />
document delivery service providers like ScienceDirect, Ingenta, Emerald, British<br />
Library and university libraries started delivering single articles or services by accepting<br />
credit card payments.<br />
Open Archives and Open Access movement: From the mid-1990s, open archive<br />
and access movements started gaining momentum and it became very popular in this<br />
decade. Open access can be described as free and unrestricted online access to digital<br />
scholarly material, primarily peer-reviewed research articles in journals. Today Directory<br />
of Open Access Journals lists 2726 journals in its directory. These are free, full text,<br />
quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals. Similarly, institutes are encouraging<br />
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their scholars to post their articles on institutes digital libraries. Highwire Press maintains<br />
largest open access archive of scientific and medical journals and Pubmed Central<br />
maintains life science journal article access. There are subject repositories like arXiv.org<br />
<strong>for</strong> Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science and Quantitative Biology, NASA<br />
Astrophysics Data System (ADS) <strong>for</strong> astronomy and astrophysics. NCSTRL provides<br />
access to over 20,000 technical reports in computer science.<br />
Search engines <strong>for</strong> scholarly in<strong>for</strong>mation: There are several free search engines<br />
like Google Scholar, Scirus, CiteSeer, and getCITED available which will index<br />
scholarly literature. Some of these tools have functionality similar to subscription-based<br />
tools like Scopus and Thomson ISI's Web of Science. Google Scholar provides links to<br />
freely available literature on the web and also citation in<strong>for</strong>mation.<br />
Web 2.0 technologies and services: Second generation of web-based<br />
communities and hosted services — such as social-networking sites, wikis, blogs and<br />
RSS are changing the way users collaboration and sharing and became very popular.<br />
Wikipedia was started by Jimmy Wales in 2001 and now has more than 2.5 million<br />
entries in 10 languages and became one of the popular sites. Now it extended to<br />
Wikibooks, free open-source textbooks, and Wiktionary, an open-source dictionary,<br />
among other creations.<br />
3. IMPACT ON LIBRARIES<br />
We can say today that users use Google or other services be<strong>for</strong>e coming to<br />
Library. In the pre-internet world, librarians/libraries have central place in their<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation requirements which now became one of the option <strong>for</strong> users in this internet<br />
world. OCLC report, College Students’ Perceptions of Libraries and In<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
Resources, indicates that most undergraduates either do not visit their campus library or<br />
do so only one or two times per year.<br />
Pressures from funding institutions, reduction in budgets, operational and<br />
financial per<strong>for</strong>mance measures increased use of internet by users are driving librarians to<br />
promote, advertise and sell library services and move beyond from free services. Let us<br />
look at the ways how these roles changed. To provide reference services, librarians<br />
moved from searching the internal library collections and one or two paid databases to<br />
online databases, hundreds of journals, online catalogs of other libraries and vast worldwide<br />
web. Availability of new tools, better access made reference queries complex.<br />
People are finding simple in<strong>for</strong>mation using websites and databases provided on their<br />
computers, <strong>for</strong> example; price of a book, address of a company and so on. Earlier<br />
librarians tend to provide subject bibliographies or reading lists to users. Now they started<br />
creating WebPages with links of sites that user’s can use. Internet made sharing of<br />
cataloging of data easier and also ability to create different catalogs <strong>for</strong> different kind of<br />
audience. In this internet world, where knowledge is treated as commodity and priced,<br />
Libraries can change their paths and play important role in few areas. Given below are<br />
some of the ways <strong>for</strong> the same:<br />
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Building digital libraries: Librarians are having rich experience of organizing<br />
knowledge. This can help them to build in-house digital libraries to capture organizations<br />
knowledge, codify and make available to all. Libraries can become multimedia publishers<br />
of its staff projects. This in turn enhances the process of knowledge discovery in the<br />
organization.<br />
Building rich catalog of resources: Libraries now required providing access to<br />
materials available in digital <strong>for</strong>m anywhere on the web and their role as in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
evaluators or navigational guides becoming important. Libraries can help users to make<br />
choices about freely available material and or rank, evaluate different services or sources<br />
available on the net.<br />
Building communities: Libraries can acts as places of social and expert<br />
networks. It can host tools <strong>for</strong> social networking, develop guides <strong>for</strong> specialized<br />
disciplines to help researchers navigate through the subject. Further, they can provide<br />
access and retrieval of knowledge produced through these networks <strong>for</strong> future use.<br />
Domain experts: Libraries can develop domain expertise to provide consultation<br />
services to researchers.<br />
Content integrators: Libraries will be encouraged to combine various sources of<br />
content from different sources and service providers including the internal content into<br />
one large offering <strong>for</strong> users’ access. Thus in<strong>for</strong>mation professionals can thrive to delivers<br />
the right content, to the right people, at the right time by focusing on business process<br />
management of the organization. This requires librarians to understand roles,<br />
responsibilities and business needs of the organization. Also, they can deploy content<br />
effectively through licensing agreements or other means.<br />
4. CONCLUSION<br />
Library staff requires understanding how different the world of knowledge<br />
became and they should be flexible and agile to learn new skills required managing and<br />
progressing in the new world. This would mean librarians to act navigation guides in<br />
knowledge world to users, embracing new technologies and changes and finally being<br />
proactive in dealing with in<strong>for</strong>mation policy issues in the organization.<br />
REFERENCES<br />
1. Hillenbrand, C. (2005). Librarianship in the 21st century – crisis or trans<strong>for</strong>mation?<br />
Australian Library Journal. 54(2)<br />
2. Changing Roles of Academic and <strong>Research</strong> Libraries This essay derives from a<br />
Roundtable on Technology and Change in Academic Libraries, convened by the<br />
Association of College and <strong>Research</strong> Libraries (ACRL) on November 2-3, 2006 in<br />
Chicago.<br />
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Author Index<br />
Amudhavalli, A., 143<br />
Anukampa Negi 152<br />
Athinarayanan, S., 190<br />
Chandra, U., 93, 169<br />
Chitra Dhavaputhalvi, A., 200<br />
Das, P., 81<br />
Dasgupta, D., 81<br />
Dipa Dasgupta 100<br />
Gayatri, D., 13<br />
Jayadev Kadli 1<br />
Jayakumar, C., 9<br />
Joby Thomas 47<br />
Joseph, J.V.M., 73<br />
Kanthimathi, S., 86<br />
Kaushik, K Sanjay 118<br />
Kuriakose, K.K. 190<br />
Mago, R., 93, 169<br />
Mallick, B.K., 81<br />
Mishra, P.B., 169<br />
Moolani, J.P. 93, 169<br />
Muttayya Koganuramath 1<br />
Narayanan, A., 180<br />
Nargund I N., 47<br />
Pandurangam, M., 73<br />
Parihar, Y.S., 37<br />
Pattnaik, J.K., 37<br />
Rajendran, L., 111<br />
Rajendran, L., (Dr.) 131<br />
Rajendran, V., 61, 180<br />
Rathinasabapathy, G., 111, 131, 143<br />
Saha, A.K., 81<br />
Sampath Kumar, S., 86<br />
Samyuktha, R., 44<br />
Sangita Gupta 68<br />
Sanjay Gupta 152<br />
Sanjeevkumar. R. J., 54<br />
Satish Kanamadi, 1<br />
Satya Murty, S.A.V., 190<br />
Satyanarayana, K.V., 204<br />
Seetha, H., 190<br />
Sheetal Tare 204<br />
Somasekharan, M., 9, 73, 106, 180<br />
Soundararajan, E., 9, 61, 106<br />
Srinivasan, J., 180<br />
Subramanian, N., 30<br />
Swaminathan, P., 190<br />
Thakur, D.S., 160<br />
Tharani, K., 86<br />
Valarmathy, N., 126<br />
Vasundhra Kumari 152<br />
Vijendra Singh 118<br />
Vinitha, K., 86
Author Index<br />
Amudhavalli, A., I-6, 143<br />
Anukampa Negi 152<br />
Athinarayanan, S., 190<br />
Chandra, U., 93, 169<br />
Chitra Dhavaputhalvi, A., 200<br />
Das, P., 81<br />
Dasgupta, D., 81<br />
Dipa Dasgupta 100<br />
Gayatri, D., 13<br />
Jadhav, R., 54<br />
Jayadev Kadli 1<br />
Jayakumar, C., 9<br />
Joby Thomas 47<br />
Joseph, J.V.M., 73<br />
Kanthimathi, S., 86<br />
Kavitha Dutta, 68<br />
Kaushik, K Sanjay 118<br />
Kuriakose, K.K. 190<br />
Mago, R., 93, 169<br />
Mallick, B.K., 81<br />
Mishra, P.B., 169<br />
Moolani, J.P. 93, 169<br />
Muttayya Koganuramath 1<br />
Narayanan, A., 180<br />
Nargund I N., 47<br />
Pandurangam, M., 73<br />
Parihar, Y.S., 37<br />
Pattnaik, J.K., 37<br />
Praveen Kumar Kumbargoudar, 54<br />
Rajendran, L., 111, 131<br />
Rajendran, V., 61, 180<br />
Rathinasabapathy, G., 111, 131, 143<br />
Saha, A.K., 81<br />
Sampath Kumar, S., 86<br />
Samyuktha, R., 44<br />
Sangita Gupta 68<br />
Sanjay Gupta 152<br />
Sanjeevkumar. R. J., 54<br />
Satish Kanamadi, 1<br />
Satya Murty, S.A.V., 190<br />
Satyanarayana, K.V., 204<br />
Seetha, H., 190<br />
Sheetal Tare 204<br />
Sneh Lata Sharma, 68<br />
Somasekharan, M., I-2, 9, 73, 106, 180<br />
Soundararajan, E., I-2, 9, 61, 106<br />
Srinivasan, J., 180<br />
Subarna K Das, 22<br />
Subramanian, N., 30<br />
Swaminathan, P., 190<br />
Thakur, D.S., 160<br />
Tharani, K., 86<br />
Valarmathy, N., 126<br />
Vasundhra Kumari 152<br />
Vijendra Singh 118<br />
Vinitha, K., 86